Oral health of children in rural area of the Philippines

Abstract

AIMS: The aims of this pilot study were to describe caries and periodontal status and tooth-brushing and snacking behavior of the 5- and 12-year-old children in rural area of the Philippines. METHODS: A field examination was conducted during an oral health promotion campaign in two villages in Passi, the Philippines in August 2009. Children aged from 5 to 12 with parental consent were invited for oral health education, which was followed by an oral examination by an experienced examiner. Children aged 5 were selected for report of caries status of teeth using dmft index, and aged 12 were selected for permanent teeth using DMFT index. Periodontal conditions of the 5-year old children were assessed using Gingival Index (GI); and the 12-year old children using Community Periodontal Index (CPI). Parental questionnaire survey was performed to study the children's tooth-brushing and snacking behavior. RESULTS: Forty-seven 5-year-old children and 40 (85%) suffered from caries. The caries experience as measured by mean dmft was 7.6±5.6. The average GI score was 1.4±0.8. Twenty-one children (26%) had no or occasional tooth-brushing. Thirty-three children (70%) had snacks at least once a day. There were forty 12-year-old children and their mean DMFT of 2.3±1.7. Among them 16 (25%) had no caries experience. There were 10 children (25%) who had calculus, and 26 (65%) had bleeding on probing. Ten children (25%) had no or occasional tooth-brushing. Thirty children (75%) had snacks at least once a day. CONCLUSIONS: In this survey, most 5-year-old children (85%) had untreated caries in primary teeth and their caries experience was high (dmft=7.6). The 12-year-old children also had a high caries experience (DMFT=2.30. Most of them (90%) had gingivitis. Many of them (75%) had snacks between meals. Their oral health habits needed to be improved and around one quarter children never/occasionally brushed their teeth.