title: Prevalence of dental caries among school-going children in Namakkal district: A cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of dental caries in primary teeth among 4-6 years old school going children in the Namakkal District.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study covered a total of 850 school going children in a total of 26 schools in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu. The age group selected for this study ranged from 4 to 6 years of age. Each child was examined in their respective schools by one of the four calibrated examiners and decay, missing and filled teeth (dmft) index was recorded along with demographic details. This study was done in September-October 2013 in a span of 1 month duration.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 850 children examined, 560 (65.88%) children had dental caries. Mean dmft score was 2.86. Prevalence of dental caries was higher in boys (69.6%) than in girls (61.5%). The untreated decay teeth accounted for 92.4%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of dental caries among 4-6 years old children is high in the Namakkal district. The need for the creation of dental awareness among children and their primary caregivers is crucial and the need for developing immediate oral health promotion strategies including an increase in school dental health programs is recommended.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics, Vivekananda Dental College for Women, Thiruchengode, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Ramachandran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Karunakaran
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics, Saveetha Dental College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Sujatha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Somasundaram
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics, Vivekananda Dental College for Women, Thiruchengode, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Murugesan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gawthaman
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics, Vivekananda Dental College for Women, Thiruchengode, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Selvaraj
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vinodh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics, Vivekananda Dental College for Women, Thiruchengode, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Sundaram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Manikandan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics, Vivekananda Dental College for Women, Thiruchengode, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Subramanian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gokulnathan
keywords: Decay; Namakkal; dental caries; missing and filled teeth; prevalence; school children