The prevalence of dental caries, associated factors and treatment needs in children up to age 12 at Dental Hospital in Phitsanulok, Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this retrospective study is to investigate the prevalence of dental caries in children age 0.5-12 years at Naresuan University Dental Hospital during 2017-2019, the variables associated with occurrence of those caries, and the frequency of treatments applied. A study was performed by collecting from each patient's record the total number of decayed, missing, or filled primary and permanent teeth; the types of clinical caries and the number of each type; treatment needs; and various factors that could potentially affect the development of caries. The research team was trained by the principle investigator, and data collection criteria were uniformly standardized. The relationships between the factors that could affect caries and the actual caries experience were statistical analyzed using the chi-square and odds ratio methods. The overall prevalence of dental caries among the 300 patients sampled was 95.33 %, so only 4.67 % of the patients had never had caries. The average dmft and DMFT were 8.49 and 0.74, respectively. The statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between the frequency of tooth brushing and the mean combined dmft+DMFT, with p = 0.003. Children who either brushed their teeth only once a day or did not brush at all had a higher mean combined dmft+DMFT value than children who brushed their teeth twice a day (OR = 4.738, 95% CI = 1.292-17.376). Other variables did not show any statistical relationship with the mean combined dmft+DMFT. © 2020, University of Dicle.