Oral health status and treatment needs in relation to nutritional status among 9-10 year-old school children in Nassiryia City Iraq

Abstract EN

Background : Dental caries and periodontal disease are the most common and widely spread disease affecting humans at different ages.

Nutrition was reported to be one of the factors affecting the severity of oral diseases.

The aims of this study included the investigation of the prevalence and severity of dental caries, gingivitis, dental plaque, dental calculus, in addition to dental treatment needs.

Furthermore oral diseases were studies in relation to nutritional status. Materials and methods : The total sample composed of 1350 (696 males and 654 females) selected randomly from different school in Nassiryia city.

Diagnosis and recording of dental caries and treatment needs were according to the criteria described by WHO (1987).

Plaque index of Silness and Loe (1964) was used for plaque assessment, Ramfjord index (1959) was applied for the assessment of calculus, gingival index of Loe and Silness (1963) was followed for recording gingival health condition.

Ramfjord index teeth (1959) were examined to assess oral cleanliness and gingival condition.

Nutritional status was assessed according to body mass index (BMI) indicator by using anthropometric measurement (height and weight) Results : Results showed that 8.96 % of the total sample was caries-free.

The dmfs value was higher among females compared to males with statistically highly significant difference (P < 0.001).

In permanent dentition, the DMFS value of the total children also was higher among females compared to males, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Of the total sample 75.7 % was found to be in need of one surface restoration, No statistically significant differences were recorded between the two genders concerning plaque, gingival and calculus indices (P > 0.05).

The prevalence of malnutrition described by the BMI indicator was 5.9 %.

For the total sample, no significant differences were recorded in mean dmfs / DMFS and different grades of nutritional status indicator. Conclusion : A high prevalence of dental caries and gingivitis were recorded indicating the need of a public health programs.