Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Introduction- Dental caries is commonly seen disease in pre- school children. The prevalence of dental caries in primary teeth is commonly evaluated using the dmft index. Materials & Methods- The present study was conducted on 4-5 years old pre- school children visiting the department along with their parents for routine dental examination. Intra oral examination intraorally was carried out using dental mirror and explorer under dental unit’s light. The presence of cavitation has been considered to be indicative of carious lesion in accordance with the criteria recommended by the WHO in 1997. Results- Out of 1284 patients, 740 (57.6%) were boys and 544 (42.4%) were girls. The difference was non- significant (P- 0.1). Children with dmft 0 were 320 (25%) and with dmft > 0 were 964 (75%). The difference was significant (P- 0.02). 74 children had 1 or more missing teeth while 1210 children had all teeth present. The difference was significant (P-0.01). 64 had 1 or more filled teeth while 1220 had no filled teeth. The difference was significant (P- 0.04). 65% parents had education level upto high school, 25% upto secondary level while 10% had upto college level. The difference was significant (P- 0.01). Parents with education level upto high school had dmft score > 2 while upto college level had just 5%. The difference was significant (P-0.01). Conclusion- 75% pre- school children had dmft more than zero score. Parents with little education had their children with more dmft score.
Key words- Dental caries, Filled, Pre- school children.

Corresponding author: Dr. Neha Gupta, Reader, Department of Pedodontics, Maharaj Ganga Singh Dental College & Research Centre, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India

This article may be cited as: Gupta N,  Aniyo R, V Kumar K. Analysis of dmft score in pre- school children- A Clinical Study. J Adv Med Dent Scie Res 2017;5(11):52-55.