Abstract
An epidemiological study was carried out to compare the prevalence of dental caries and treatment need of pregnant women and single females in Mosul City, Iraq.
A total sample of 666 women (399 pregnant women and 267 single females) selected randomly. Pregnant women were selected from four health care centers, when attending to periodic maternal check up with different stages of pregnancy in Maternal and Child Health Care Center. Single females were selected randomly as control group to compare with pregnant group from health centers. Each group subdivided into 4 subgroups according to the age.
Caries experience and the treatment need were diagnosed and recorded according to the criteria suggested by WHO (1997).
The results showed a significant difference in the mean Decayed, Missing and Filled Surfaces (DMFS) between pregnant and single females, and the prevalence of dental caries increase with advanced age. The mean DMFS value for pregnant women is 28.78 and for single females 19.09. The study demonstrated that the decay surface component was formed more than the half of DMFS value.
Educational programmes to pregnant women through medical and dental centers as well as mass media are suggested to increase the dental awareness and prev-entive behaviour.
