Prevalence of Dental Caries and Its Pattern Among Five Year Old School Going Children in Shimla City, Himachal Pradesh
KR Sharma, VK Bhardwaj
Dept. of Pedodontics & Preventive dentistry, H.P.Govt.Dental College & Hospital, Shimla, India
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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
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Objective: The purpose of the study was to assess the prevalence of dental caries and its pattern in the primary dentition among five year old school going children in Shimla city-Himachal Pradesh. Materials and Method: The study was conducted on 800 school going children (421 boys and 379 girls) from twenty seven schools which were selected randomly. The data obtained was analyzed by SPSS package version 13, using proportion test for comparison.
Results: Caries prevalence was higher in boys (46.8%) than in girls (41.6%) and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05).Caries prevalence was higher in the mandibular arch than in the maxillary arch among both the gender with a statistically significant difference. Caries prevalence was higher on left than right side in both male and female subjects the difference was not significant. When the caries prevalence of the anterior teeth was compared between the gender, boys showed higher caries prevalence than girls and this difference was statistically significant (p <0.05).Comparison of caries between the aches in the anterior segment revealed that caries attack was higher in the maxillary arch and the difference was highly significant statistically (p <0.01).
Conclusion: High prevalence of dental caries among five year old school children in Shimla city is a cause of concern which point out to the utmost necessity of regular periodic check-up and application of preventive measures and treatment modalities.