Caries experience in school children- health and social problem

Dr. Ajten Begzati, Prof.Asoc. Agim Begzati, Ass.dr. Fehim Haliti, Ass.dr. Vala Hyseni,
Ass.dr.Valmira Maxhuni

Medical Family Center, Dentistry clinic, Kastriot, Republic of Kosova

University Dentistry Clinical Centre of Kosova

Introduction and Objective

Dental caries is pathological destruction of tooth hard tissue with

progressive effluence. Initially it appears in enamel, the dentin is involved
after that, and later the pulp and the periodontium, with the possibility of
complications that will affect the general health [1]. The consequences of
caries may be numerous, ranging from the morphological changes to
functional ones, e.g. complete crown destruction (early childhood caries),
chewing difficulties, speech impediments, digestive tract disorders,
odentogenic focal points [2].

Material and methods

In study are involved 758 school children of 7-14 ages. School children were examined at various schools in
Kosovo in period 2014-2015. This was a cross-sectional study conducted in randomly selected schools. Dental
caries was scored as the number of decayed, missing, or filled primary teeth (DMFT), following the
recommendations of the World Health Organization. DMFT are means to numerically express the caries
experience and are obtained by calculating the number of: Decayed (D), Missing (M), and Filled (F) teeth (T).
Diagnostic criteria were calibrated, with an inter-examination reliability of kappa index. The collected data were
entered in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 13). The level of statistical significance was set at
P=0.05.

Results and Discussion

Tab. 1. Caries prevalence, mean DMFT

Te prevalence of caries at the school children was 93.5%. The
DMFT between genders in school
percentage of children with DMFT=0 at the age of seven was 12%,
children.
and as expected, this decreased with age. At 14 years old, only
Mean DMFT
pAge Examined DMFT=0
T
Female Mail
value*
0.5% was with no observable clinical signs of caries. The mean
7y
84
12.00%
2.7
2.8
2.7
DMFT index was 5 for all school children. The increase in the mean
8y
98
9.50%
3.1
2.9
3.3
DMFT was related to age, increasing from 2.7 for 7-year-olds to 7.1
9y
97
7.50%
3.7
3.5
3.8
for 14-year-olds. There was no significant difference between the
10y
105
6.00%
4.5
4.5
4.6
p<0.05
11y
95
6.00%
4.8
4.8
4.8
genders for any age group (Table 1).
12y
104
4.50%
6.6
6.6
6.8
In the sample of 758 school children , 6.5% of the children were
13y
90
2.50%
6.5
6.7
6.6
caries-free (dmft =0). As expected, this percentage decreased
14y
85
0.50%
7.1
7.1
7.3
Total
758
6.50%
5.02
4.9
5
p<0.05
with increasing age. Only 0.5% of fourteenth-year-old children
* p-value between gender
were caries free. At the seventh-year-old children caries free were
12 % (figure 1).The greatest contribution to the DMFT index was
untreated caries, which varied from 2.5 for 7-year-olds to 4.6 for
14-year-olds. From the mean DMFT structure, 76% of the teeth
are with caries (untreated), 10% are missing due to the caries,
and only 14 % are treated (filled)(Table 3).
Discussion
The data from this oral health assessment of children of Kosovo
showed a very low level of dental health in permanent dentitions.
Caries prevalence expressed via the DMFT index was very high.
The results from the present study show that dental health of
Table 3. The DMFT structure of school children.
these children in Kosovo is worse than that of children in other
Age
Examined
DMF
D
M
F
European countries. The mean DMFT (6.6) of school children in
7y
84
2.7
2.5
0.1
0.1
8y
98
3.1
2.8
0.1
0.2
Kosovo (age 12) was higher in comparison with school children
9y
97
3.7
3.3
0.2
0.2
(age 12) of the following developed countries: Netherlands (1.1),
10y
105
4.5
3.5
0.4
0.6
Finland (1.2), Denmark (1.3), USA (1.4), United Kingdom (1.4),
11y
95
4.8
3.8
0.6
0.4
12y
104
6.6
4.9
0.8
0.9
Sweden (1.5), Norway (2.1), Ireland (2.1), Germany (2.6) and
13y
90
6.5
4.6
0.9
1
Croatia (2.6) (16). The mean DMFT of Kosovos children (age 12)
14y
85
7.1
4.6
1.1
1.4
was similar to the mean values in Latvia (7.7), Poland (5.1) and a
Total
758
5
3.8
0.5
0.7
group of 12- to 14-year-olds in Sarajevo, Bosnia (7.18).[3,4]. As
previously mentioned the low treatment rate of the children in
Conclusion:
Kosovo
is unfavorable
indicateshealth
high treatment
need.
Oral
health
is integraland
to general
and should
not be considered in isolation. The commonest

disease is dental caries. The index values in school children of Kosovo were also very high, with
maximum values in the fourteen year-olds (mean DMFT of 7.1). On average, these children had almost
five teeth with untreated caries. Kosovos children exhibited high values of untreated teeth (76%) of
DMFT structure. Because of the lack of active preventive measures in Kosovo, we propose to continue
educational measures.
Referncee:
[1] Soames J.V. & Southam, J.C. Oral Pathology. 3rd ed. Oxford, 1999.
[2] Rai Z. Deija i preventivna stomatologija-book, Zagreb, 1985.
[3] Marthaler M., OMullane M. & Vrbic V. The prevalence of dental caries in Europe 1990-1995. Caries Research, Vol. 30, pp. 237-255.1996
[4] Kobaslia S, Maglaic N, Begovic A. Caries prevalence of Sarajevo children. Acta Stomatologica Croatica 2000;34:83-85.