Prevalence of Dental Caries among the Primary School Children of Urban Peshawar

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of dental caries among school children of Hayatabad from class one to class fifth, the dft and DMFT score and some factors causing dental caries. Materials and method: A cross sectional observational questionnaire based study was carried out in ten primary schools in Hayatabad, from class one to class fifth among 500 school children with main objective to estimate the prevalence of caries and calculate dft and DMFT score among these school children of Hayatabad, Peshawar. A questionnaire was designed to ask the students about their diets, tooth brushing habits and were examined for caries. Results: Among 500 children examined, 72.4 % were detected with caries. The mean dft score was found to be 0.7983, mean DMFT score to be 2.163 and prevalence per 100 children was 20.11. The study revealed that tooth brushing habits played a very significant role in caries, where brushing habits were unsatisfactory, caries level was high and brushing habits were normal, then caries level was reduced. Conclusion: On the basis of these findings it is recommended that school health service is the need of time. In different countries, school based programmes were run and successful results were obtained so similar programmes should also be initiated in Pakistan.