More than 68 percent of rural children aged between 8 to 15 years suffer from dental caries, says a recent study.
Among the study population, 31.84 percent of children were also found free from dental caries.
A group of students of Chittagong Medical College under the department of community medicine conducted the study.
The aim was to find prevalence of dental caries among the children of 8 to 15 years in a selected rural community of Sitakunda under the Residential Field Side Training programme.
The study said only 0.53 percent the children were from upper class and 21.05 percent from the lower class in terms of socio-economic status.
“Around 92.89 percent of the children had the habit of cleaning their teeth before their main meal,” said the study.
Of them, 56.32 percent used toothbrushes and 7.1 percent used tree barks as a tooth-cleaning device.
Among them, 56.05 percent had not been treated before and were suggested to take medical advice.
Only 4.47 percent went to a dental surgeon prior to this study.
The study was conducted among 380 children, chosen by purposive sampling technique and aimed at evaluating the prevalence of dental caries among them.
The study found 43.68 percent children of 8 to 10 years, 29.47 percent of 10 to 12 years and 26.85 percent of 12-15 years affected by dental caries.
“The study showed the prevalence rate in males were 53.42 percent and in females were 46.58 percent.”
This work on dental caries emphasised the need for increasing awareness to further prevent the problem by undertaking appropriate care and cure programmes.