Dental Caries Prevalence amongst Ruvuma School District Children, Songea; Tanzania, East Africa

Abstract: Objective: To determine the prevalence of dental caries, as measured by the dft/DMFT Index, among Ruvuma district school children and, based upon that determination, to estimate the need of sealants, fluoride, and other preventive dental services.

Methods: Cross sectional study of 575 children, 2 through 19 years old, were chosen on the basis of availability as well recruiting all patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria as they became available. Dental caries were recorded using the criteria described in the WHO manual for Oral Health Surveys, Basic Methods (1997). Results: 61.2 % of children had caries experience, 41.7% required early dental care and 15.7% required urgent dental care. Children aged 2-5 years, mean dft is 2.6, 6-11 years mean dft is 2.0 and DMFT 0.3, 12-15 years mean DMFT is 1.5, and 12-17 years, mean DMFT is 2.4. Unmet index was 99.7%. Conclusions: The findings in this study indicate higher caries experience than what has been observed in nearby Tanzanian regions of Iringa, Mwanza, and Arusha. Further, our findings are in sharp contrast to Tanzania National Oral Health Survey (2004) which reports dental caries experience still very low amongst Tanzanians ( mean DMFT for 12 years old was 0.3 and for whole population 1.8). No dental restorations were found in any of the 575 children in this study and caries experience was the result of active disease representing a great unmet treatment need. Access to care as well as socio-economic factors is of prime concern in this area.