Altındağ İlçe Milli Eğitim Müdürlüğü’ne Bağlı Anaokullarındaki 3-6 Yaş Çocukların Ağız-Diş Sağlığı Durumunun Belirlenmesi

Abstract

Pre-school children are under risk considering general health and oral health. During this period,basic habits related to general health have been gained; learning how to care their mouth and teeth under parent’s supervision is also important in these ages.. Early childhood caries is one of the most frequent diseases in nursery children among the world as well as our country. In this study, it was aimed to determine some socio-demographic characteristics, oral hygiene practices, oral health related habits, feeding habits and oral health status of nursery children.The ethical approval of Hacettepe University and the written informed consent of the parents were obtained before the data collection and examinations. Eleven public nursery schools in one low socio-economical level districts of the capital city of Turkey (Ankara) were covered; the data were gathered via a structured, pre-tested questionnaire from 729 parents and children’s oral examinations were done under the field conditions by a Pediatric Dentistry research assistant The oral health status was evaluated by using dmft/s, D0-D4, ICDAS II, pufa, dental plaque and gingival indices. Furthermore, posterior and anterior occlusion, dental anomalies, anthropoid diastemas and crowding existence were also evaluated. Of the 729 children, 55.4% was male; mean age was 58.8±8.6 months; mean dmft was 4.8±4.7 and the mean dmfs was 8.3±10.2. 538 children (73.8%) had early childhood caries (ECC) while severe ECC was 51.0%. Only 23 boys and 35 girls had totally healthy primary teeth according to D0-D4 and ICDAS II. Of all children, 17.1% had initial, 28.0% had moderate and 46.9% had extensive decay according to ICDAS II.64 boys and 30 girls had symptoms due to pufa index; a total of 179 teeth had clinical consequences of untreated dentine carious lesions with the mean pufa index 0.25±0.79. The mean plaque and gingival indices were 0.31±0.32 and 0.08±0.16, respectively. Child’s age, child’s gestational age, child’s sharing spoon/fork with mother, active dental caries in the mother, child’s previous dental visits have been found significantly associated with ECC. In conclusion, pre-school children enrolled to the public nursery schools in a low-middle socio-economic level district in Turkey had high prevalence of carious lesions and low oral health habits.There is an urgent need of preventive programs in the area.