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Epidemiological Study of Oral Hygiene and Prevalence of Dental Caries in Secondary School Going Children

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Epidemiological Study of Oral Hygiene and Prevalence of Dental Caries in Secondary School Going Children ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 Open Access Article www.njcmindia.org Epidemiological Study of Oral Hygiene and Prevalence of Dental Caries in Secondary School Going Children Pradeep Savale1, Ruplal Lanjewar2 Financial Support: None declared ABSTRACT Conflict of Interest: None declared Copy Right: The Journal retains the copyrights of this article. However, re- Introduction: Dental caries is one of the most common lifetime production is permissible with due ac- chronic diseases affecting the people of all regions and society that knowledgement of the source. had 60%-90% of schoolchildren in most of the developed countries, How to cite this article: and in several developing countries involving both deciduous and Savale P, Lanjewar R. Epidemiological permanent teeth. The aim of the study is to evaluate the prevalence Study of Oral Hygiene and Prevalence of dental caries among the secondary school children’s in Yadgir of Dental Caries in Secondary School city Karnataka Going Children. Natl J Community Med 2019;10(3):155-158 Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study of the age group 11- 16 years are considered with the sample size of 542 students from 3 Author’s Affiliation: different private and one government school. A Pre-tested ques- 1Associate Professor; 2Assistant Profes- tionnaire was given to know the information on tooth cleaning sor Department of Community Medi- practices, dietary habits and dental experience etc, and the data that cine, Navodaya Medical College, is collected from each participant is subjected to statistical analysis Raichur, Karnataka to know the prevalence of dental caries. Correspondence Results: Prevalence of dental caries among secondary school stu- Dr. Pradeep Savale dents are 62.36% (N=338), which is slightly more in boys compared [email protected] to that of girls i.e. 73.5% & 70.9% respectively. Date of Submission: 20-11-18 Conclusions: Caries are more in boys compared to that of girls, and Date of Acceptance: 25-02-19 are common with primary dentition than permanent dentition Date of Publication: 31-03-19 Key words: Dental caries, Dental habitat, Dental care precautions, Deciduous and Permanent teeth. INTRODUCTION Complications such as inflammation of the tissue around the tooth, tooth loss, and infection or ab- Dental caries is a significant but a preventable pub- scess formation. lic health problem that defines the standard of health and other related conditions which can also Worldwide, approximately 2.3 billion people (32% enables an individual to eat, speak, and socialize of the population) have dental caries in their per- without active disease, discomfort or embarrass- manent teeth. The WHO estimates that nearly all ment and which contributes to general well-being adults have dental caries at some point in time. In 1.Caries are the breakdown of teeth due to acids baby teeth it affects about 620 million people or 9% caused by bacteria, which are of different colour of the population. They have become more com- from yellow to black. The earliest sign is the ap- mon in both children and adults in recent years. pearance of a chalky white spot on the surface of The disease is most common in the developed the tooth, indicating an area of demineralization of world and a smouldering disease in the some de- enamel. As the lesion continues to dematerialize, it veloping countries like India. The major factors are can turn brown but will eventually turn into a cav- inadequate resources for dental treatment, lack of ity. Once the enamel and dentin are destroyed, af- public awareness, and motivation with increased fected areas changes its colour and become soft to intake of carbohydrates, poor oral hygiene, fluoro- the touch effecting nerves of the tooth resulting in sis, enamel defects, various measures of low socio- pain and it will turn worst on exposure of heat, economic status & low level of parental education cold, or sweet foods and drinks that may lead to National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 10│Issue 3│March 2019 Page 155 Open Access Journal │www.njcmindia.org pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 etc. Geographical location plays a great role in car- Table 1: Age and sex distribution of children ies prevalence, and it varies with the change in loca- Age (yrs) Boys (%) Girls (%) tion to location. According to the National Oral 11 63 (17.95) 19 (9.95) 2 Health Survey report 2004. Caries prevalence in 12 59 (16.81) 32 (16.75) India was 51.9%, 53.8%, and 63.1% at ages 5, 12, and 13 41 (11.68) 45 (23.56) 15 years, respectively, in different parts of India 14 52 (14.81) 37 (19.37) 15 68 (19.37) 27 (14.14) The level of oral health knowledge and practices in 16 68 (19.37) 31 (16.23) secondary school students is necessary which re- Total 351 (64.76) 191 (35.24) quires proper investigation and this study aimed to Mean and SD of age is 13.59 ± 1.713 years assess the level of oral health knowledge and prac- tices among secondary school students Table 2: Sex wise Distribution of Dental Caries of the study population MATERIALS & METHODS Gender Total Subjects Caries count (%) A cross-sectional study is carried out in Yadgir city Boys 351 258 (73.504) area to assess the prevalence of dental caries among Girls 191 80 (70.948) secondary school children from 3rd to 26th April Total 542 338 ( 62.360) 2018 (i.e. for 24 days). A total of 2 private & 1 public secondary schools were chosen for the study, with a Table 3: Percentage of children with caries in pri- response of about 89% which is followed with writ- mary and secondary dentition ten consent, a self-administered questionnaire that Age Primary Dentition Secondary Dentition can assess the level of oral health knowledge and Caries (%) Caries (%) practices of students. The clinical examination was Boys Girls Boys Girls done by one dentists assisted by three dental assis- 11 21.52 4.92 10 10.5 tants over a period for recording the data. As per 12 17.09 9.84 14 21.1 13 13.29 27.87 11 15.8 Standard infection control guidelines all the re- 14 18.35 19.67 17 10.5 cordings were carried out in the daylight, and the 15 12.03 14.75 21 26.3 child was made to sit in ordinary chair facing away 16 17.72 22.95 27 15.8 from a direct sunlight. 3. The oral examination of the study subjects was conducted in respective Table 4: Percentage of student's among Different schools using, a plane mouth mirror under natural age levels having oral health knowledge & prac- light and a community periodontal index (CPI) tices probe, as indicated by the WHO. Age n Twice a day Knowledge on im- Ever visited Brushing portance of dental a dental habit (%) checkups (%) Clinic (%) RESULTS 11 82 11 (13.41) 9 (10.98) 14 (17.07) Table 1 shows that the total study population of 542 12 91 15 (16) 15 (16.48) 17 (18.68) children’s ranging from 11 to 16 years with 191 is 13 86 17 (19.2) 12 (13.95) 13 (15.12) 14 89 15 (17.4) 17 (19.1) 17 (19.1) Girls& 351 are boys (Mean and SD of age is 13.59 15 95 19 (19.7) 17 (17.89) 16 (16.84) ± 1.713 years) 16 99 14 (14.6) 21 (21.21) 14 (14.14) Table 2 indicates the total prevalence of caries among the school children is 62.36% and the total Table 5: Percentage of Sugar consumption among prevalence of caries among boys is slightly high different age group compared to that of girls i.e. 73.5% and 70.9% re- spectively. Age Students Consuming sugary foods less than five times a day (%) Table 3 indicates the irregular distribution of pri- 11 82 12 (14.63) mary and secondary caries in respective of age 12 91 20 (21.98) groups in girls and boys, where primary caries is 13 86 12 (13.95) more in age 11 & 12 years boys compared to that of 14 89 11 (12.36) girls, but in age group 13-16 primary caries is more 15 95 18 (18.95) 16 99 18 (18.18) in girls than boys. Whereas secondary is more in girls in almost all the ages except 14 years. The knowledge on importance or awareness on The number of students who had an acceptable dental check up is more in age group 16 & 14 years level of frequency brushing teeth (i.e. twice a day) is compared to other age children’s but the students less than 20% among them age group 13& 15 years percentage who visited dental clinic is slightly high show slightly high frequency than others. from age group 14, 12 &11 years (Table 4). National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 10│Issue 3│March 2019 Page 156 Open Access Journal │www.njcmindia.org pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 Majority of the study subjects are reported to have Although in our study twice-a-day tooth brushing an acceptable level of practice of frequency of sug- has been reported, only 39.29% of students had an ary food consumption but students of age group acceptable practice of brushing teeth at an interval from 12, 15 &16years students are reported with of twelve hours as recommended showing that stu- high levels of sugar consumption compared to that dents are not informed on the importance of brush- of 11-13 years students respectively (Table 5). ing twice a day at an interval of twelve hours.
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