Abstract

MOLETE, MM; IGUMBOR, J; STEWART, A  and  YENGOPAL, V. Dental status of children receiving school oral health services in Tshwane. S. Afr. dent. j. [online]. 2019, vol.74, n.4, pp.171-177. ISSN 0375-1562.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2519-0105/2019/v74no4a2.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: School health services and baseline oral health information are central to monitoring the progress of ongoing reforms, addressing areas requiring improvement and revitalization of South African primary health care. The study described the dental status of learners receiving oral health services in Tshwane, and assessed the influence of factors such as age, gender, location, and services received. METHODS: A cross-sectional analytical study design with a multistage sampling technique was employed to randomly select ten schools. Oral health examinations were conducted on all learners in two selected grades in each school RESULTS: There were 736 participants, ages 6 to 16 years, 50.9% were girls. Dental caries prevalence in the permanent dentition was 25.9% and in the primary dentition, 30.2%. Mean DMFT/dmft scores were [(0.90; SD:1.7; SiC :2.7); (1.2;SD:2.3; SiC:3.7)] respectively PUFA/pufa prevalence mostly affected the primary dentition (pufa 5,2% vs PUFA 2.2%). The unmet treatment need (UTN) was 89.6% and associated factors included gender, location and type of services received. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of dental caries was relatively low in comparison with similar South African studies, but untreated disease levels were high. Most affected were females, primary school learners, urban learners and those not participating in a supervised tooth brushing programme

Keywords : Dental epidemiology; school oral health; health programmes; oral health services.

        · text in English     · English ( pdf )