Abstract
The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of dental caries in an urban and arural area in Mosul city, a sample of 240 school children aged 6-14 years was examined. The sample was divided into 3 age groups 6-8, 9-11 and 12-14 years.
The WHO methodology (1997) was used to assess the individual tooth status, results of dental caries in the primary dentition revealed that the mean dmft was decreasing with increasing age as it was 3.5, 2.12 and 0.57 for age groups 6-8, 9-11 and 12-14 years respectively with no sex variation but with statistically significant difference in location (1.69 in the rural and 2.44 in the urban area).
For the permanent dentition the mean DMFT was increasing with increasing age with a statistically significant age difference, as it was 0.2, 1.34 and 2.45 for age groups 6-8, 9-11 and 12-14 years respectively, results also showed a statistically significant sex difference 1.12 for total males and 1.53 for total females, in addition to significant difference in location 1.68 for urban and 0.98 for rural areas.
