DMFT Index and dental carries assessment for 12-14 years old students, Ahvaz - Iran in, 2010-2011

Introduction: Oral and dental health is an important public health indicator and general health is more depends on the oral and dental health and if not dealt with in childhood and adolescence ages the future health of the community will be compromised. The purpose of this study was to assess DMFT (Decay, Missing, Filled, Teeth) index and dental carries for 12-14 years old students.

Materials & Methods: A descriptive-cross sectional research was conducted to assess DMFT index and dental carries. The research units included 1000 boys aged between 12-14 years old, from first to third grade, which were selected randomly from secondary schools, based on multistage sampling. The data collection tools were a questionnaire and an observation record sheet. Using descriptive and inferential methods collected data was analized by SPSS ver. 15 statistical software.

Results: Results extracted from this study showed that the mean of decay, missed and filled permanent teeth in all the age groups of 12-14 years, were 2.37, 0.61 and 0.32 respectively, and mean of DMFT was 1.1. Also, 76 percent of the DMFT score was related to decayed teeth and mann-whitney test shows that there is no significant relationship between DMFT index and brushing teeth.

Conclusion: Considering the high percentage of dental caries in this study, it is necessary that students, especially in this growth ages have paid attention from the education authorities and must be done basic measures to reduce or eliminate this problem in health planning for these ages.

Keywords: Assessment; DMFT; Carries; Students