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Abstract
Introduction: Dental caries is one of the endemic disease conditions still affecting the humans and their oral tissues. The methods applicable for the prevention of caries at global level are still a long way ahead. Aims: To assess the prevalence of dental caries among prepubescent and adolescent school children of Thamar city, Yemen. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the school going children of Thamar city. 120 children, with ages between 6 and 15 years, were selected by the simple random sampling technique. The children were evaluated for dental caries activity using fissure sealants retention rate, sealants' efficiency being evaluated with scaling criteria. Results and discussion: The retention rate of the 6-11 year-old group of children after 1, 2 months was 100%, 95% after 4 months, 89.8 % after 6 months, 94.11% after 8 months and 88% after 10 months, respectively. The retention rate of the 12-15 year-old group after 1, 2 months was 100%, 94.4% after 4 months, 90% after 6 months, 87.5% after 8 months and 91.54% after 10 months, respectively. Conclusions: Significantly different values were found between the two age groups (6-11, 12-15 years) as to the retention rate and efficiency of sealants.
Keywords: dental caries, fissure sealants, disintegration.
1.INTRODUCTION
Dental caries is a chronic, bacteriologically mediated, multifactorial disease that can affect the dentition of both children and adolescents, being also the most prevalent chronic disease in early childhood in most communities, to be still considered as a major public health problem worldwide [1-3].
The high percentage of caries in children is recorded on the occlusal surface of teeth, the highest risk for caries initiation in children being observed on the first and second permanent molars. Two factors considered important for plaque accumulation and caries initiation on the occlusal surfaces are the stage of eruption's functional status and tooth specific anatomy. The intrinsic property of the dental plaque to release lactic acid, which results in the dissolution of inorganic minerals of the tooth, leads to dental caries propagation [4].
In the year 1981, WHO and Federation Dentaire International (FDI) jointly formulated the first global oral health goals to be achieved by 2000, as follows: children reaching the age of 12 will not possess an average of more...