Prevalence of dental caries and treatment needs in the rural child population of Nainital District, Uttaranchal.

Dental caries is a rapidly emerging oral health problem amongst the children of India. Its incidence in different states varies between 31 and 89%. This study was undertaken with a twin objective of assessing the prevalence of dental caries in parts of Uttaranchal state and designing the interventional strategies with a view to attend the oral health care needs of children. A total of 722 school children in the age range of 7-12 years of Nainital district were examined using WHO (1997) criteria. An overall caries prevalence of 77.7% was recorded, which is 67.26% in the age group of 7-9 years and 80.86% in 10-12 years with DMFT+deft of 1.97 and 2.61, respectively. It was observed that there were greater treatment needs in older age group. Another significant finding of the study was that the 59.96% required restorative treatment out of the various dental treatment needs evaluated.