title: Periodontal treatment needs and oral hygiene among Ethiopian immigrants.
abstract: Periodontal disease studies in developing countries over the past four decades indicate periodontitis to be a major problem, even in populations with relatively low caries rates. The aim of this study was to document levels of periodontal treatment needs, as well as oral hygiene levels for a large sample covering all ages of an Ethiopian Jewish population recently immigrated into Israel. Over 800 subjects from the total of 15,000 Ethiopians who immigrated were examined utilising the PTNS Index and the OHI-S Index. Results indicate that all the examined population was in need of oral hygiene instruction. Almost 80 per cent are in need of scaling and approximately 20 per cent are in need of more complex treatment such as surgery. Significant differences were found according to age. This could be attributed to the high OHI-S scores, ranging from 2.53 at age 0-12 to 4.82 at the 51+ age group, with a mean Debris Index of 2.12 for the total population. It is suggested that this population should be exposed immediately to preventive and treatment programmes to improve oral hygiene and decrease needs for future, costly periodontal treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Dentistry, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine, Ein Kerem Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Berg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D003728:Dental Calculus / Q000453:epidemiology; D003741:Dental Deposits / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005002:Ethiopia / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009911:Oral Hygiene Index; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010512:Periodontal Index; D015995:Prevalence