Caries Risk Assessment among School Going Young Adolescents in Sullia Taluk-Dakshina Kannada

BACKGROUND: Dental caries continue to be one among the major problems related to oral health in developing countries, that affects 60%–90% of school-aged children and adults. According to the WHO Global oral data bank in 2009 the point prevalence was 54% among 12 years old. Studies on prevalence conducted in Dakshina Kannada district reported a caries prevalence ranging from 32.8% to 82.6%. This study was undertaken to assess the risk of among school-going young adolescents using the Cariogram model. SUBJECT AND METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive epidemiological study was conducted among school-going young adolescents of Sullia taluk Dakshina Kannada for a period of 3 months (August–October) 2019. From a total of 20 schools, 3 schools were randomly selected and children satisfying inclusion/exclusion criteria were randomly drawn from these schools. Data on parameters of Cariogram model were collected on a specially designed pro forma consisting of four parts, namely Questionnaire, along with a clinical examination, the collection of saliva and microbiological analysis. Descriptive data were recorded and Fischer's Exact test was used to test the significance of the findings. P ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: An analysis of the relative contribution of each cariogram parameter in relation to the caries experience revealed that diet content, frequency of diet, mutans count were statistically significant factors in determining caries risk (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the present study performed with cariogram in young adolescent school-going children revealed that diet content, frequency of diet, mutans count were statistically significant factors in determining caries risk and susceptibility factors were mainly responsible for the aforementioned experience of the school children.