Provincial Survey of Oral Health Status in Primary School-Children and Oral Health Promotion Program in School during 2005-2007

Abstract

The Dental Health Division; Department of Health has established an oral health system in school children aged 12 years old. The system was designed to examine the dental caries prevalence and significant factors such as after-lunch tooth brushing, snack and soft drink consumption behavior. Data since 2005-2007 was analyzed and presented in caries prevalence and extent (DMFT). There were 50, 63 and 60 provinces done their survey in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. At the national level all the data was weighed by population size and then the prevalence of caries was calculated. The caries free rate in this group was quite constant at 42% while the mean DMFT was decreasing from 1.9 and 2 teeth /person in 2005 and 2006 to 1.6 in the recent year. The mean DMFT was highest in the northern part in opposite to the north-eastern part which revealed lowest DMFT score. The trend of healthy gingival was gradually increasing from 48.3% in 2005 to 54% in 2007. This figure reflect the impact from the oral health program launched in school for the past 3 years.