Prevalence of dental caries among primary school children in Thamar Governorate in Republic of Yemen

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of dental caries among primary school children in Thamar Governorate, Republic of Yemen. A random sample of 494 primary school children was examined. The sample was divided into 3 age groups; namely, 6, 9, and 12 years old. The WHO methodology (1997) was used to assess the individual tooth status. Results of dental caries in the primary den-tition showed that the mean dmft for the total sample was 3.40 + 0.15 which was decreased with increasing age from 3.59 to 3.57 to 2.19 for the age groups 6, 9 and 12 years respectively with significant sex dif-ference (males was higher than females) as total, 3.93 for the total males, 2.84 for the total females. For the permanent dentition, the mean DMFT was 3.35 + 0.12 which was increased with increasing age with statistically significant age difference as it was 2.39, 2.98, 3.85 for the age groups 6, 9 and 12 years respectively with no sex variation.