Assessment of decayed, missing, and filled teeth and the influencing factors in 7-10-year-old students in Quchan, Iran, 2020-2021

Background and aim: dental caries is considered the most common chronic disease in childhood and decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) index is regarded as a valuable prognostic factor for oral and dental health in adulthood. thus, the aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of dmft and self-care behavior among 7-10-year-old students in quchan, a city in northeast iran. methods: a total of 528 students aged 7-10 years old, selected through cluster random sampling, participated in this descriptive cross-sectional study. demographic information including age, gender, parental educational level, and frequency of tooth brushing was obtained from the participants; dmft index was recorded after careful oral examination. data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (anova), independent samples t-test, and chi-square test. results: in this study, the ratio of girls to boys was 1:1. the overall mean of dmft was 4.70 ± 3.16, with no significant difference regarding the gender. however, different age ranges presented significant fluctuation in the mean of dmft value with the significantly highest value observed in 9-year-old and the lowest in 10-year-old students. moreover, 8.92% of the participants were caries-free (cf), with a significant dominance of girls. the significantly higher cf index was observed in 7-year-old students as compared to the other ages. however, daily tooth brushing or parental educational level showed no significant correlation with dmft or cf indices. conclusion: due to the high prevalence of dmft reported in this study, a comprehensive plan should be developed to promote children’s oral health. this issue reinforces the need for preventive programs in general policies of the county.