Abdul Haleem, Ayyaz Ali Khan.
Dental caries and oral hygiene status of 12 years old school children in Pakistan.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;40(4):138-2.

A dental survey of 3076 school children aged 12 years was conducted in 15 cities of Pakistan as part of a School Dental Health Education Program in 1999. The aim of the survey was to determine the prevalence of dental caries and to assess the oral hygiene status of children in this age group as no survey had been undertaken on a national scale since 1988. The present surrey showed an improvement in dentition and oral hygiene status of urban school children over the figures of the last national pathfinder survey conducted under the auspices of WHO in 1988. The proportion of caries-free urban school children has increased from 50% in 1988 to 63.75% in 1999 though the mean DMFT score in case of this age group showed a marginal decline from 1.0 in 1988 to 0.9 in 1999 The percentage of children having calculus has come down from 51 to 33.57 However a major cause of concern is that more than 90% of the tooth decay in the study population remains untreated. Moreover a higher proportion of children studying in government schools with almost no access to dental care services require professional scaling and restoration of carious teeth than those studying in private schools. The survey highlighted the need for school-based dental health education programs.

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