Oral Health Status of 5 Year Olds in Turkey-2004

OBJECTIVES: To describe the oral health status of 5 year old children in urban and rural areas in Turkey. METHODS: A representative sample of 5 year old children was obtained according to the rural/urban ratio based recent census in Turkey and 250 sites were selected through the Turkish Statistical Council by using proportional stratified sampling method. At the end of the study, 1,539 children (boys=793, girls=746) were reached. Clinical examinations were assessed according to WHO (1997) criteria and a questionnaire on socio-demographic factors and oral health behavior was applied by trained and calibrated dental students. RESULTS: Caries prevalence was 69.8% among 5 year olds and dmft was 3.7±3.9 (dt =3.6, ft=0.05, mt=0.05).The main component of the dmft was the decayed teeth. Prevalence of dental caries was 73.1 % for boys (mean dmft=4.2±4.1) and 66.2 % for girls (mean dmft=3.3±3.7). The percentages of dental caries in rural and urban areas were 67.8 % and 73.9 %, respectively. Dental fluorosis prevalence was low (0.7 %). Evaluation of treatment needs revealed that the greatest need was for two or more surfaces restorations (37.6 %) followed by one surface restorations (35.6 %). About 21.1 % of children reported that they had no a toothbrush while 29.2 % of them reported that they have brushed their teeth once a day. Eating habits between meals were found to be frequent comprising 89.3% of the population. It was found that 82.1 % of the children had never visited a dentist until the day of the study. CONCLUSION: Implementation of community-oriented oral health promotion programmes are needed in order to increase the level of knowledge of community and to change attitudes and practices in relation to oral health of Turkish children.

This study was supported by Hacettepe University and The Ministry of Health