Dental caries prevalence among school-going children of rural areas of Jammu

Background: Dental caries is considered as the most common chronic disease of childhood that interferes with normal nutrition intake, speech, and daily routine activities. Dental caries afflict humans of all ages with the highest priority risk group being schoolchildren. Thus, a cross-sectional study was conducted with the aim to assess the prevalence of dental caries among 6-8 year old school-going children of Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. Methods: 400 study subjects were selected based on simple random sampling technique Demographic information such as name, age, gender, and class was collected followed by clinical examination for dental caries using DMFT/dmft index. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses have been carried out. Chi-square test was used to analyse gender differences and mean DMFT/dmft index scores. Results: The study sample comprised of 400 school children with 247 males and 153 were females. The DMFT scores ranged from 0-6, with the mean DMFT score of 2.491.10 with the prevalence of decayed teeth being more in males. Conclusions: Dental caries were found both in primary dentition and permanent dentition. The study reveals that dental caries still remains as a major oral health problem among school children.