Frequency of Associated Factors Causing Dental Caries in Patients Reporting at Tertiary Care Hospital

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the dental caries experience and the frequency of the associated factors causing dental caries.

METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Islamabad Dental Hospital among adults for duration of 3 months. A sample size of 349 patients was selected using convenience sampling. Informed consent was obtained from each patient and associated factors were recorded in a proforma. Clinical examination of each patient was carried out and decayed, missing and filled teeth were recorded in a DMFT chart. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 22.0 and was presented in the form of percentages.

RESULTS: Results showed that the percentage of patients having decayed teeth was 89.4%. Mean DMFT index was 3.56. It was also observed that 61.6% of the patients cleaned their teeth daily, among which 58.8% cleaned their teeth once a day and only 10.2% cleaned twice a day. Tooth brush was used by 78.4% of the patients, whereas majority of the patients did not use any cleaning aid such as tooth pick or floss. It was also observed that 72.2% of the patients consumed sweets once a day, while 90.8% didn’t brush their teeth after sweet intake.

CONCLUSION: Poor oral hygiene practices and improper dietary habits are observed among majority of the participants in the study. Oral health education programs could be used to educate the masses regarding oral hygiene practices and dietary controls.

KEY WORDS: Dental caries, Associated risk factors, Oral hygiene, DMFT.

HOW TO CITE: Khan ZA, Qureshi B, Anwer U, Asghar Sk, Fatima K. Frequency of associated factors causing dental caries in patients reporting at tertiary care hospital. J Pak Dent Assoc 2019;28(3):118-121.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25301/JPDA.283.118

Received: 08 February 2019, Accepted: 17 June 2019

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