Association of root caries, oral hygiene and gingival health among adult population in Baghdad and Mosul city center : a comparative study

Abstract EN

Aims : To determine the association of root caries, oral hygiene and gingival health among adult population in Baghdad and Mosul Cities.

Materials and methods : A sample of 210 subjects was selected aged 20-60 years, attending the Periodontal Clinic of Dentistry College at Baghdad and Mosul Universities.

For each subject, clinical examination was performed on a dental chair, using plane mouth mirrors and exploratory probe to detect root surface caries.

While WHO periodontal probe was used to detect the dental plaque and gingival health.

Root Caries Index (RCI) was used for detecting root caries, Plaque Index (PI) for oral hygiene and Gingival Index (GI) for gingival health.

T-test was used to find a difference between Baghdad and Mosul, while Duncan's Multiple Range Test was used to find the difference among groups, the differences were considered significant at p ≤ 0.05.

Results : From the total sample the mean Root Caries Index (RCI) rate was (13.69) in Baghdad and (13.59) in Mosul, no significant difference was found between the two cities (p > 0.05).

The mean Plaque Index (PI) was moderate for Baghdad and Mosul (1.23, 1.04) respectively, while Gingival Index (GI) mean was low for both cities (0.96, 0.71) respectively.

Also subjects who did not brush their teeth revealed a high mean of RCI, PI and GI in both cities than those who brushed their teeth once or more than one time daily with highly significant difference (p < 0.01).

A significant decrease in the mean of RCI, PI and GI with high level of education (p ≤ 0.05) was found.

Conclusions : Root surface caries is regarded to be high in both cities population and deserve attention concerning their actual role in the epidemiology of principle oral disease of the adult population.