Caries and periodontal experience among 998 priests and novices in Bangkok.

OBJECTIVE The present study was cross-sectional survey aiming to describe oral health status in terms of caries and periodontal experience and oral health behavior of 998 priests in Bangkok. MATERIAL AND METHOD The 998 priests, aged 12-92, from 28 temples in Bangkok were clinically examined at Priest Hospital using WHO methodology. Information on oral health behavior was obtained via questionnaires. RESULTS The prevalence and level of caries increased with ages. Overall, 89.5% had evidences of caries experience; 71.5% were related to untreated caries. The average DMFT score was 7.4 (DT=2.9, MT=3.2, FT= 1.2). About 72.9% needed 1-surface filling and 45.6% needed extraction. Similarly, gingivitis was highly prevalent for all age groups, with 73.4% having calculus. About 12.7% had periodontal pockets. However, the highest prevalence of periodontitis belonged to the 55-64-year-old priest at 41.4%. Tooth loss was dramatically prevalent among the elderly over 65. Even though most participatting priests had high evidences of caries and periodontal problems, only 57.7% perceived their own problems. The first and second common problems were calculus and food retention, at 48.9 and 44.1, respectively. With respect to level of education, priests who completed their education from primary school or lower had significantly higher number of DT MT and DMFT and lower number of FT than the group with higher education (p < 0.05). Similarly, nonsmokers had lower mean of MT, DMFT and prevalence of score 3 and score 4 than past smokers and current smokers (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION Most priests in the 28 participatting temples still had unmet needs on dental services. Not only providing more access to dental services, the continuous implementation of community based oral health promotion and prevention, emphasizing related risks which needed to improved oral healthcare of the priests to limit oral health burdens in the future.