Dental caries experience among patients attending a private dental Institute: a retrospective study

Background and objectives: The study was undertaken at I.T.S CDSR, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad
(Uttar Pradesh). A total of 29,282 thousand patients who had visited the institute from August 2011 to
January 2012 were assessed for dental caries experience using retrospective design.
Basic research design: The study was carried out using OPD records by a systematic random
sampling and the data was assessed for dental caries using WHO modification of DMFT index. The
standard error of mean was calculated for all the mean values of decayed, missing and filled
component.
Results: A total of 1100 records were taken in the study after sampling, male and female ratio was
48% and 52% respectively. The mean DMFT score was 2.70±1.275 in the <15year age group and
5.08±2.581 for 35-44 age group and 13.50±5.038 for 65 and above year age group. Mann-Whitney U
test and Kruskal Wallis test were applied to check the difference of mean DMFT scores between
males and females, and between age groups respectively. Mandibular 1st and 2nd molars were found to
be most affected teeth among the study population.
Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries among adults was found to be high among this
population. There is need to generate the awareness about oral health and prevention of dental caries
and to institute measures for the provision of dental care services at the primary level.