Oral Health status of the Patients with Tuberculosis at the Govt TB & Chest diseases Hospital, Andhra Pradesh, India

This study was conceived to assess the oral health status of the patients with tuberculosis at the TB hospital in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Methods: The study population consisted of 87 patients aged 14-60 yrs admitted in the seven wards of the hospital. The soft tissue lesions, periodontal status and the dental caries experience were measured using the WHO criteria, CPITN and DMFT index respectively. Results: None of the patients exhibited a healthy periodontal status. A majority of them had calculus (57.47%), followed by shallow and deep pockets respectively (32.18%, 8.02%). The prevalence of dental caries was 79.3% in the study population the mean DMFT of the males and females were 2.04 & 1.47 respectively. 47.1% of the subjects had no soft tissue lesions, followed by the premalignant lesions which were quite low in the subjects examined. Conclusion: The oral health of these subjects has been neglected and much needs to be done to improve the oral health of these classes of patients.