Caries prevalence in Saudi primary schoolchildren of Riyadh and their teachers' oral health knowledge, attitude and practices.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present study was to determine the caries prevalence and severity in primary school children Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to assess the oral health knowledge, attitude and practices of their teachers.


METHODS
A random sample of primary schoolchildren was examined for dental caries utilizing World Health Organization criteria for diagnosis of caries. The information regarding oral health knowledge, attitude and practices in schoolteachers was collected through an especially designed self-administered questionnaire.


RESULTS
The prevalence of caries among the sample was 94.4%. The mean decayed, missing and filled score for primary teeth of the sample was 6.3 (+3.5), with decay component of 4.9 (+3.1), missing component of 1.1 (+1.7) and filled component of 0.3 (+1.0). The mean decayed, missing and filled score for permanent teeth of the sample was 1.6 (+1.5) with decay component of 1.5 (+1.4) as the major component. All the teachers (100%) thought that good dental health was important for general health and that routine check up dental visits help in maintaining good dental health. All the teachers (100%) thought that tooth cleaning using brush or miswak was important for good dental health. Regarding the caries risk factors, the majority of teachers understood the main causes of dental caries such as poor oral hygiene (97.4%) and high sugar intake (97.4%). Almost all the teachers (97.4%) thought that dental health lectures were of great importance for their students but less than half (41%) actually spent time on teaching proper oral health care.


CONCLUSIONS
The caries prevalence in Riyadh primary schoolchildren is very high. The teachers' knowledge regarding oral health is satisfactory and their attitude towards oral health is very positive.
Wyne
Amjad H
AH
Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, King Saud University, College of Dentistry, PO Box 60169, Riyadh 11545, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ahwyne@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Ghorabi
Bandar M
BM
Al-Asiri
Yahia A
YA
Khan
Nazeer B
NB
D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching