Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Background: Oral diseases such as dental caries and gingival diseases affect about 80% of the school children worldwide. The pain and tooth loss associated with oral diseases adversely affect the appearance, quality-of-life, growth, and development of children. The present cross-sectional study was conducted to assess oral health status among rural children. Material and methods: This study was conducted among 5-12 year old children of rural children. A total of 620 school children were included. The study consisted of close-ended questions comprising sociodemographic variables of age, sex. All the children were examined under adequate illumination in the school premises. The examination was conducted with a plain mouth mirror and CPI probe as given by the WHO 1997. Oral hygiene status was assessed using Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) were assessed based on WHO proforma 1997. Data analysis Statistical analysis of the data was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 11.5 (SPPS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). P ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant and highly significant, respectively. Results: The results of the study showed that there were 59.03% males and 40.96% were females. It was observed that 297 participants belonged to age group of 5-10 years and 323 belonged to age group >10 years. Mean age of the participants was 10.52±2.37. It was observed that the decayed teeth (d/D) were present in 258 study subjects, missing teeth (e/M) were present in 36 study subjects, filled teeth (f/F) were present in 14 study subjects and deft/DMFT was 308. It was observed that the good oral hygiene was present in 206 study subjects, average oral hygiene was present in 246 study subjects, poor oral hygiene was present in 168 study subjects and mean OHI-S was 1.52±0.87. Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries is less than half. This suggested a need of dental health education program including proper oral hygiene instruction which helps children to improve positive dental attitude and behavior. Keywords: oral hygiene index-S, oral health status, dental caries.