Dental Caries;

Abstract

Objective: To find out the prevalence and determinants of dental carries among patients attending dental OPD. Design:Descriptive Cross sectional study. Place & Duration: Dental out Patient Department, Bahawal Victoria Hospital and period was August tillNovember, 2010. Methodology: Data was collected with the help of predesigned Questionnaire. A Convenient sample of 05 eligiblerespondents was examined on daily basis till completion of sample size. Caries was assessed by using DMFT scale. Analysis of data wascarried out with the help of computer SPSS version 11. Chi square test was used to see the association between different variables,(brushing atnight, daily brushing, sugar rich food). The level of significance was taken as p<.05. Results: Among study population (52%) were male and(53%) were urban dwellers.. Dental caries was present in 97% of the patients & DMFT Score increased with increase in age. Commonlyassociated habits (with carries) included lack of daily brushing of teeth (P<.01), lack of brushing at night (p<.001), and daily intake of sweets(p<.005). Conclusions: Frequency of dental caries was high with advancing age. There was significant relationship with oral Hygiene, Sugarrich food and dental caries.