Volume 10 Issue 1 (January-February, 2024)

Original Articles

Oral Health Status of 6- And 12-Years Old School-Going Children in Rural Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan: An Epidemiological Study
Hemant Chawla, Vinod Arora, Yash Godha

Background and Aim: Oral health is important for the overall healthy wellbeing of an individual. It is an important element of general health throughout life. However oral health negligence had been seen often in India especially among children of rural areas. Millions of children suffer from various oral health issues such as dental caries, periodontal diseases; malocclusion etc. There is a paucity of literature on oral health status in rural Sri Ganganagar among children of 6 and 12 years old thus demanding a need for epidemiological studies that could assist in the implementation of oral health promotion programs. Therefore the aim of the study was to assess the oral health status of 6- and 12-year old school-going children in rural Sri Ganganagar, India. Materials And Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in three schools of rural Sri Ganganagar, India among 1200 subjects of 6 and 12 years old school-going children. A total of 510 in the age group 6 years and 690 in the age group 12 years of both sexes were examined by two examiners. Prevalence of dental caries was recorded using dentition and treatment needs index, the prevalence of dental calculus was assessed using Code 2 of CPITN and prevalence of malocclusion was recorded using WHO criteria. The data was recorded and analyzed using Chi- square test to calculate the difference among age groups for the above mentioned oral diseases. Results: The results of the present study showed that a significant difference was observed between the two groups with respect to the prevalence of caries, calculus and malocclusion (p<0.05) and significant difference was seen between the age groups 6- and 12 years with respect to overall oral health status for dental diseases (p<0.05).

 
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