Abstract
Aims: To determine the prevalence of dental caries in primary and permanent dentition (dmft, DMFT) and to investigate the reason for seeking dental treatment and the type of treatment carried out for children. Material and Method: The study includes (1178) case sheets which represent the total number of children attending the Pedodontics Department during the academic year of (2004 – 2005). The WHO methodology was used to assess the individual tooth status. Results: Indicated that the highest percentage group of attends was 11–12 years group, and the children attended to clinic seeking treatment for painful condition had higher percentage (60.10 %). The DMFT for the total sample was 2.68% and increased with increasing age with a statistically significant age differences, the percentage of caries free children for total sample was 10.3 %, while mean dmft for primary dentition was 3.05% and increasing from the first age group till the third age group and then decreased till the last age with no gender variation. Conclusions: The priority of dental health services for children attending Pedodontic clinic is primary prevention (fluoride application, scaling and polishing) followed by tertiary prevention (extraction) and then secondary prevention as a totally (amalgum, light cure and root canal filling).
