Evaluation of Oral Health Status and Treatment Needs of School Children in Rural Punjab (India)

Dental decay is the most widespread chronic disease of childhood and India being a developing country, confronts the issue of decayed teeth on a regular basis. Baseline data on dentition status of school children in rural Punjab is scarce. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to assess oral health status and treatment needs of school children in Mohali District (Punjab). The study population consisted of 1543 school children aged between 2 to18 years of both sexes with 41.4% (n=639) females and 58.6% (904) males and was conducted in 20 randomly selected schools. Evaluation of the study population revealed that dental caries was the most prevalent oral disease. Dental decay was found to occur in 58.5% (n=904) of the total population. Of those with dental decay (n=904), 13.8% (n=125) children required tooth extraction. More than half the children required oral prophylaxis (58.3%, n=901) and malocclusion was observed in 11% (n=171) of the sample. The caries experience and treatment needs of this cohort were comparative to those reported by other studies conducted on children in rural India. Lack of awareness and affordability of oral health care services may be some of the prevailing causes of poor oral health.