Caries status among children in the West Rand District of Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There is a lack of data about the prevalence and clinical consequences of dental caries in the West Rand. However dental caries does appear to be a substantial public health problem in Gauteng. OBJECTIVE: This study set out to determine the prevalence and clinical consequences of dental caries among school children in the West Rand district of Gauteng. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study comprised of 800 pre-school and primary school children six to eight years old. Cluster sampling was used to select the participating schools. The oral health status was determined by using the DMFT/dmft and PUFA/pufa indices. RESULTS: Of the 800 children, 282 were in the four to five year old age group and 518 were six to eight years old. For four to five year olds the mean dmft score was 2.24 and the prevalence of caries 49%. The clinical consequence of caries was scored with a mean pufa index of 2.9 and the percentage of untreated decay was 47%. For six to eight year olds the mean DMFT/dmft scores were 0.1 and 2.4 respectively and the prevalence of caries 46%. The clinical consequence of caries scored with the PUFA/pufa index was 0.0 and 3.4 respectively and the percentage of untreated decay was 44%. CONCLUSION: There are high levels of untreated caries in children in this district. The pufa scores ndicate that children suffer serious consequences of untreated decay.