Dental caries experience among secondary school children in the Vardar region of the Republic of Macedonia.

AIM The aim of this study was to assess the dental caries in 15-year-old children attending regular public secondary schools in Veles. METHODS The study has been carried out during 2013 on adolescents aged 15.01(± 0.42).In this cross-sectional study, the secondary school children from first grades (N = 127) have been selected from 2 Secondary Schools in Veles. The dental status of the participants was evaluated on the basis of the 1997 World Health Organization caries diagnostic criteria for Decayed, Missing or Filled Teeth (DMFT) by 2 calibrated examiners. P value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS The total number of children in the exercise was 127, consisting of 59 (46.46%) female and 68 (53.54.2%) male. The mean DMFT was 4.9768, with standard deviation (SD) of 3.5084 and 95% confidence interval (CI) of 4.3603-5.5925. Significant Caries (SiC) index was 8.9302. The prevalence of caries-free children was 9.45%. The percentage of untreated caries or the ration of D/DMFT was 0.5601 (56.01%). CONCLUSIONS The present study provides some evidence of relatively high caries prevalence and severity in comparison with the Western European countries. It is necessary to dedicate more attention to the oral health of children and adolescents in our country.