Stomatoloski glasnik Srbije 2021 Volume 68, Issue 2, Pages: 79-85
https://doi.org/10.2298/SGS2102079M
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Oral health status in 12 and 15-year-old schoolchildren
Milanović Milena (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Clinic for Pedriatic and Preventive Dentistry, Belgrade, Serbia), milenamil92@gmail.com
Bogdanović Nikolina (Community Health Centre „Dr Simo Milošević“, Belgrade, Serbia)
Jakšić Milica (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Department for Human Genetics, Belgrade, Serbia)
Miličić-Lazić Minja (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Clinic for Prosthodontics, Belgrade, Serbia)
Introduction. Dental caries is, along with periodontitis, the most frequent
oral disease and represents a chronic, progressive, multifactorial process
that leads to loss of hard dental tissues. The oral health status analysis
and caries risk factors assessment in early childhood and adolescence are
necessary for creating strategies in oral health promotion and preventive
treatment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate caries prevalence in
12 and 15-year-old schoolchildren in Cukarica, a municipality of Belgrade.
Material and method. The retrospective study included 409 schoolchildren of
both genders. The oral health status was registered using the Klein-Palmer
DMFT system (D - Decayed, M - Missing, F - Filled teeth). The methods of
descriptive statistics were performed and p-values lower than 0.05 were
considered statistically significant. Results. The younger group included
214 children (52.3%) and the older group 195 (47.7%). Individual caries rate
was higher in 15-year-old children (81.02%) comparing to 12-year-old (57%).
The mean value of decayed teeth for all participants was 2.43 and of total
DMFT was 8.99%. Conclusions. Oral health promotion programs gave positive
results. Moreover, it is important to implement them in the underdeveloped
regions of Serbia with an improvement of the oral health literacy of parents
and raising awareness of oral diseases.
Keywords: oral health, health promotion, dental caries assessment, risk factors, education