Dental survey of children in Chandigarh, Punjab, India

Dental care in India is delivered mainly by private professionals and there is no central databank of information on dental health.

OBJECTIVE: In order to inform policy on caries prevention and the provision of other dental services, the aim of this survey was, firstly, to determine the dental caries and fluorosis experience in school children in Chandigarh, Punjab, where the fluoride concentration in drinking water ranged from 0.16 to 0.29 mg/L and, secondly, to investigate the effect of socioeconomic inequities on dental caries.

METHODS: A cross-sectional epidemiological survey of children aged 6 and 12 years in urban Chandigarh and Mohali and surrounding rural areas was conducted. In the urban areas, children were selected from three strata: lower, lower middle, and upper middle classes. Rural children were classified as lower middle class. 1731 school children were randomly selected and examined. Dean's fluorosis index was used and dental caries experience (dmft/DMFT) was scored following the criteria established by the WHO. Questionnaire data were also gathered on the consumption of sugar-containing food, oral health behaviour, and dental visiting behaviour.

RESULTS: Caries experience results are shown in Table below. Higher dmft/DMFT scores were found in children in urban lower class areas. Fluorosis prevalence was estimated as 9.8%.

CONCLUSION: The distribution of caries suggests that a population approach, such as water fluoridation, is needed to reduce social inequities in the caries burden. It is suspected that the cases of fluorosis were migrant children.