Ambrina Qureshi, Manu Batra, Madiha Pirvani, Aeeza Malik, Aasim Farooq Shah, Mudit Gupta.
Oral Health Disparities Among 12- 15 Years Children Of India And Pakistan – A Cross Border Comparison.
J Pak Dent Assoc Jan ;23(4):170-4.

ABSTRACT: India and Pakistan are two neighbouring countries of South-East Asia, not only sharing common border but also socio-demographics, eating habits, cultural and climatic conditions. All these factors have an impact on general and oral health of individuals. This study was conducted with an aim to compare the oral health awareness and dental caries status among school going children of India and Pakistan. METHODOLOGY: Across-sectional study was conducted among children aged 12-15 years attending government schools of Moradabad and Karachi cities of India and Pakistan respectively. A two-stage sampling technique was used to produce representative samples from each location based on probability proportional to enrolment size (PPE). Selected participants were interviewed using a close-ended, pre-tested questionnaire for assessing oral health awareness followed by dental examination at respective locations using DMFT Index. RESULTS: A total of 809 school children, 409 from India and 400 from Pakistan were examined. Mean DMFT of India was found to be 1.9 ± 1.46 and that of Pakistan was 1.00 ± 1.57. CONCLUSIONS: An increase in decayed component in comparison to the overall DMFT in both the countries indicate the need of care, less utilization of available care, unavailability of care and ignorance. There is a need to change the attitude and knowledge about dental health care in these developing countries to cope up with the lack of resources and still have a better dental health.

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