Prevalence of Periodontal Disease in 15-Year Olds, in Suva, Fiji

Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 281 15-year old children from four randomly selected high schools in Suva, Fiji. Participants were randomly selected from each school using the school registers. The participants were examined for periodontal health status using the community periodontal index of treatment needs (CPITN) index. The assessment procedure was carried out using a WHO periodontal probe and in natural light. Ethical approvals were obtained from the National Health Research Committee and Ministry of Education; and informed consent was obtained from the participant’s parents/ guardians before commencement of the study. All data was entered and analyzed in Epi-Info (3.5.1).

Result: 64.4% (n=181) of the participants had Code 2 (calculus and other plaque retentive factors) as their highest score. 16.40% (n=46) of the participants had Code 0 (healthy periodontium) as highest score and 18.85% (n=53) of the participants had Code 1 (gingival bleeding) as their highest score. 2.93 sextants per person were healthy, 3.04 sextants per person had gingival bleeding and 1.93 sextants per person had calculus or other plaque retentive factors. None of the sextants had periodontal pockets of 4mm and above and 0.03 sextants per person were excluded.

Conclusion: The most common periodontal problem was calculus deposits, found in about three sextants.