Status of oral hygiene dental caries malocclusion and the utilization of dental care services among 6 to 13 years old children of southeast Haryana

Abstract

This study was conducted to generate a baseline data for the status of oral health, specifically dental caries, oral hygiene, malocclusion, dental emergence, and treatment seeking behavior of children in six districts of Southeast Haryana. The prevalence of dental caries, bad oral hygiene and malocclusion was slightly lesser than that reported by several previous studies. However, the study found a significant association of prevalence of caries in children with poor oral hygiene and malocclusion. The dental emergence pattern of these children was similar to the pattern reported by newlinevarious authors. Even after experiencing some kind of oral symptom, the utilization of dental care services was very low amongst these children. The study highlighted the need for a longitudinal study to better understand the causal relationship between various variables and oral health. newline newline