Background: Although they are not life threatening, dental caries and periodontaldisease are the most predominant and widely spread oral diseases throughout theworld. The aims of the study included the investigation of the prevalence andseverity of dental caries, gingivitis and dental plaque in relation to gender,furthermore, nutritional status was assessed in relation to oral health condition(dental caries).Materials and Methods: This oral health survey was conducted among primaryschool children aged 9 years old in Dewanyiah city in Iraq. The total samplecomposed of 600 child (320 males and 280 females) selected randomly fromdifferent school in Dewanyiah city. Diagnosis of dental caries was according tothe criteria described by WHO (1987). Plaque index of Silness and Loe (1964)was used for plaque assessment, gingival index of Loe and Silness (1963) wasfollowed for recording gingival health condition. Nutritional status was assessedaccording to body mass index (BMI) indicator using anthropometric measurement(height and weight).Results: Results showed that the prevalence of dental caries was 85% for 9 year-oldschool children. Regarding primary and permanent dentition, dental caries washigher among females compared to males with statistically significant difference(P<0.05) for primary dentition, on the other hand, males showed higher values offilled surfaces compared to females with statistically significant difference(P<0.05) for primary dentition and highly significant difference (P<0.01) forpermanent dentition. Finding of this study revealed that 100% of the children hadgingival inflammation. Furthermore, the values of plaque and gingival indiceswere higher among males compared to females with statistically highly significantdifferences (P<0.01). In current study, the prevalence of malnutrition described bythe BMI indicator was 5.3%. For total samples no significant difference wasrecorded in dmfs /DMFS values among wasting and well nourished children(P>0.05).Conclusion: A high prevalence of dental caries and gingivitis were recorded.Improvement in the prevention educational programs is needed among schoolchildren.
Can Dental Caries be Defined as a Pandemic?
