Description of the Severity of Dental Caries and Body Mass Index (BMI) among Elementary Students of Puskesmas Keputih Surabaya

Tooth caries or also known as tooth decay or cavities is one of the most common and widespread oral disease. However, this disease is also preventable if a good oral care and habits are practiced on daily basis since at the young age. Due to this, this study is conducted with the aim to identify the caries severity among the elementary pupils of Puskesmas Keputih. Random samples of 120 students were selected as the subject of study. Questionnaires, interviews and oral examination were done as means of data collection. The results had revealed that there were a few factors which increased the risk of caries development among the students. These factors are age, cariogenic food and drinks consumption, psychological and physical disorders, dental visits, toothache problems and lastly the behavior of mothers in handling their children's toothache problems. In addition, the severity of caries when specified by Body Mass Index (BMI), the groups of subjects with a total number of DMF more than 5, tend to have BMIs with abnormal categories. Thus, in order to prevent and reduce cavities, a proper oral care needs to be taken since severe caries could contribute to poor body growth and BMI.