Prevalence of dental carries among school children

Background: dental caries is the single most prevalent chronic childhood disease worldwide. it affects 60-90% of school going children in most developed countries and in several developing countries the prevalence rates are increasing. dental caries is a multi factorial disease. some socio-demographic and behavioral indicators that prone an individual to increased caries experience include: presence of plaque,poor oral hygiene,increasing age,gender,inadequate tooth-brushing habits,frequency and timing of consumption of sugar-containing drinks. aim: to know the determinants of dental caries in primary school going children of lahore. methods: it was cross-sectional descriptive study in which 152 primary school going children of union council samanabad lahore were included. data was collected through questionnaire,which was entered in to computer using spss 16.0. results: among 152 children,75.7% were male and 38.8% were 9-10 years old. majority (89.5%) brushed their teeth regularly while 69.9% brushed their teeth once a day. 99.3% used toothpaste to clean their teeth. 12.5% chewed pan/supari daily. most of the children (97.4) consumed meat,fruit and vegetables. 82.9% children used sweet and toffees. majority (74.3%) did not use toothpick after meal and 80.3% children were not habitual of nail biting. a mainstream (96.7%) had knowledge about oral hygiene. a major proportion (52.4%) acquired knowledge from parents. 42.8% children had complaint regarding toothache. majority (86.2%) and (87.5%) had no gingivitis and calculus deposits respectively. similarly most of the children had no bleeding gums (93.4%). oral hygiene was found satisfactory among 86.8% children. among children who brushed their teeth regularly,84(55.3%) had dental caries. the children who had satisfactory oral hygiene,80 (52.6%) had dental caries. conclusion: regular brushing practices were found satisfactory among primary school children. knowledge about oral hygiene was satisfactory. overall oral hygiene of children was observed satisfactory. majority had staining of teeth.