title: The oral health status in Mahonisi: a community with very low levels of dental caries.
abstract: The oral health status and treatment needs of the community at Mahonisi were determined in order to plan a health care programme. The caries experience, occlusal status, fluorosis prevalence and prosthetic status and needs were determined according to the WHO pathfinder methodology (1987). The dmft for the 4- 5- and 6-year-old children was 0.33 and 0.67 respectively. The DMFT ranged from 0 in the 12- and 15-year-old children to 4.2 in the 65-years-and-older age group. Among the 12-, 15- and 18-year-old pupils 73% had good occlusions, 18% had slight and 9% more serious anomalies. Of the 152 subjects examined for fluorosis only 2 exhibited very mild dental fluorosis. No soft-tissue lesions were seen in the adult sample, but 10 cases were seen in the schoolchildren. No edentulous person was seen, but 4 people needed extraction of all their remaining teeth. A need for 7 partial dentures was recorded. The simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) ranged from 1.45 in the 4- 5-year-old children to 4.47 in the oldest group. The zero DMFT scores for the 12- and 15-year-old children are exceptional and need to be further investigated. It is recommended that the teachers in the pre-school and some of the primary school be trained to provide oral hygiene instruction to the children.
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: du Plessis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003728:Dental Calculus / Q000453:epidemiology; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003829:Denture, Partial / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D009050:Fluorosis, Dental / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007576:Jaw, Edentulous, Partially / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009911:Oral Hygiene Index; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014076:Tooth Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014081:Tooth Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data