Socioeconomic Status and Dental Caries: Exploring The Relation in Patients Visiting Dental Teaching Hospital, Karachi

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to assess the relationship between socioeconomic status and Dental caries in patients attending Out Patient Department of Baqai Dental College.

METHODOLOGY: A cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Oral Diagnosis, Baqai Dental College from 26th April 2017 to17th December. A structured questionnaire was developed and demographic profile, socioeconomic status, residence and decayed teeth were recorded. Data was analyzed for frequency and percentages of different variables and chi- square test was used to check for association between the variables by using IBM SPSS version 22. RESULTS: The present study reported that out of 327 patients, 189(57.8%) belonged to rural area with an average monthly income. One hundred and twenty six (38.5%) of patients with an average monthly income, and 24(42.1%) from low monthly income, each reported only one decayed teeth.

CONCLUSION: The present study reported an inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and dental caries. The number of patients from low socioeconomic status showed less number of decayed teeth.

KEY WORDS: Dental caries, income, socioeconomic status, teaching hospital.

HOW TO CITE: Siddiqui TM, Wali A, Azimi M, Salehi T, Siddiqui SM. Socioeconomic status and dental caries: exploring the relation in patients visiting dental teaching hospital, karachi. J Pak Dent Assoc 2019;28(1):27-32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25301/JPDA.281.27

Received: 17 August 2018, Accepted: 27 November 2018

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