Dental caries experience in Croatian school children in Primorsko-Goranska county.

BACKGROUND Dental caries as an infectious disease is still a major oral public health issue. As documented in some recent studies, it has been recognized as the most common chronic childhood disease. AIM The aim of this study was to evaluate caries prevalence, DMFT and dmft scores, as opposed to caries free children at the age of 6 years from a well developed western region of Primorsko-Goranska county. The purpose was also to evaluate a Significant Caries Index (SiC) and a Restoration Index (RI) in the same study sample of 6 year olds. METHODS Data for a sample of 1,825 (868 girls and 957 boys) children was collected and analyzed by using Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U Tests. RESULTS Results showed that the mean dmft was 4.68 +/- 4.19, and the mean DMFT was 0.22 +/- 0.69. D/d component constituted a major part of caries score (DMFT/dmft) in both primary and permanent dentitions in the population of 6 years old children. Caries prevalence was 74.5 in primary dentition and 11.9 in permanent dentition. Significant Caries Index value (SiC) was 0.66 for permanent and 9.6 for primary teeth, respectively. The Restoration Index (RI) was 20.1 for primary and 39.5 for permanent dentition. CONCLUSION The results obtained in this study revealed that dental caries still appears to be quite a significant problem among 6 year olds. However, collected data, particularly considering the SiC Index, can be used for further planning of preventive and restorative dental treatments as well as setting up future goals for the prevention of dental caries in Croatian school children of Primorsko-Goranska county.