Oral health survey of military personnel in the Phramongkutklao Hospital, Thailand.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate chief complaints, the prevalence of the oral diseases and the treatments needed in military personnel in comparison to the civilians. MATERIAL AND METHOD The dental records of new patients at Phramongkutklao Hospital from January to December 2003 were reviewed. The retrieved information included demographic status, chief complaint, diagnosis and the treatment needed. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the data. Univariate analysis was used to obtain the odds ratios and 95% CI for the independent association between factors (age, status), chief complaint, diagnosis and treatment needed. RESULTS A total of 4,662 consecutive dental records were evaluated during the study period, in which, 69.7% persons were civilians, and 30.3% persons were military personnel which included; commissioned officers (COs) 23.6%, non-commissioned officers (NCOs) 15.3%, conscripts 44.8%, and retired officers 16.3%. The military personnel had higher rates of toothache (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.08-1.47), and gum swelling (OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.07-1.84) than the civilians. Military personnel showed increased risk of having pulp and periapical diseases (OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.05-1.44), and fracture teeth (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.04-1.97) more than those observed in the civilians. Only 1.2% of the active duty military personnel required no dental treatment. It was found that the military personnel had significantly higher treatment needs than the civilians in all categories except for removal of impacted teeth. The conscripts had the highest needs for dental treatments. CONCLUSION This survey showed that the military personnel, especially the conscripts had a relatively high prevalence for oral diseases. In order to make their oral conditions fit for deployment, the predicted treatment times and resources used were estimated to be convincingly high.