Evaluation of dental caries status in 7-12 years old students in Bovair Ahmad Township, Iran, 2014

Tooth caries is a most prevalent infectious disease in children. The purpose of this study was to assess caries experience status among 7-12 year old students in Bovair Ahmad township, Iran, 2014.
In a Cross-sectional and analytical study, 460 children were randomly selected from primary schools of Yasuj city and surrounding villages. After signed informed consent form by parents, the children were clinically examined at school by a dental team. Demographical, socio-economical and teeth caries statuses were gathered by a questioner and a dental chart. The data were analyzed using Chi–square, Proportion, Mann-Whitney, correlation and Kruskal-Wallis tests (α=0.05). The SPSS software version 22 was used to extract the outputs.
Dental caries prevalence of deciduous, permanent and their sum in the children were 75.2, 41.1 and 89.8 percent, respectively. The prevalence of dental caries in boys was significantly higher than girls (p=0.032). Caries prevalence in permanent teeth in rural children was significantly higher than that in children of urban area (p=0.001). dmft, Dmft and dmftು means were 3.57, 0.87, and 4.44, respectively. There was a direct and significant correlation between DMFT and children's age (r=0.254, p=0.001). DMFT and dmftು in rural children were higher (p=0.001 and p=0.017, respectively).
Prevalence and severity of dental caries among 7- 12 year-old children in Yasuj were higher than the WHO standards. The tooth caries experiences were more prevalent in boys, in children resident in rural areas and in older ages.