title: Oral health status and treatment needs among primary school going children in Nagrota Bagwan block of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oral diseases such as gingival diseases and dental caries affect about 80% of the school students worldwide. The study was taken up with the aim to evaluate the oral health status and treatment need in the School going children of Nagrota Bagwan Block of Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total number of 3069 school children in the age group of 5-12 years studying in 96 government primary schools of study area were surveyed to find out the Oral Hygiene Index simplified (OHI-S) scores, community periodontal index (CPI) scores, dental caries and treatment need using dentition status and treatment need index (WHO diagnostic criteria, 1997).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean OHI-S was 2.7 ± 2.81and 2.8 ± 2.99 in 5-8 and 9-12 years age group, respectively. The gingival bleeding was observed in 76.8% and 75.9%, calculus in 10.2% and 18.3% in 5-8 and 9-12 years age group, respectively. The overall caries prevalence of subjects was 58.4% with high caries prevalence in females as compared to males and in 9-12 years age group as compared to 5-8 years age group. The mean dmft/DMFT was 2.05 ± 4.13 and 2.56 ± 4.20 in 5-8 years and 9-12 years age group, respectively. Treatment need observed was 62.3% and 75.3% in 5-8 and 9-12 years age group, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study demonstrated that school children in Nagrota Bagwan, Kangra district suffer from high prevalence of dental caries and have high treatment need as well as poor oral hygiene and gingival health status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dentistry, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Anupriya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Pradeep
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bansal
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Ashoo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grover
authors.affiliation: Department of Dentistry, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Suresh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Ashish
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
keywords: Dental caries; oral health status; treatment need