title: Caries prevalence of school-going boys and girls according to cleaning methods and soft drink-taking frequency in different localities, in and around Guwahati City.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dental caries is a multifactorial disease, causes of which are mostly understood nowadays. This disease is not only treatable but also preventable, if detected in its initial stage. In a developing country like India, facility of dental treatment is available mostly for urban population, whereas a very common approach of dental disease treatment is still traditional for the rural people.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to find out the prevalence of dental caries, teeth cleaning methods, and sweet and soft drink-taking frequency among boys and girls of Guwahati City and its nearby semi-urban and rural areas.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional study was carried out among school going boys and girls of 3-17 years group, using the modified WHO oral health survey form. The number of population was 2396 from urban locality, 2370 from semi-urban, and 2467 from rural.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Caries prevalence is much higher in urban (62.77%), contrary to rural where 76% of the sample is caries free. Those who take sweet occasionally suffered less or almost caries free (7.93% in urban and 0% in rural) than among those who consume it more than five times a day (90.75% in urban, 100% in semi-urban, and 99.33% in rural).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Urban localities are two times and semi-urban areas are 1.64 times more at risk of dental caries than rural areas. The odds ratio for cleaning frequency shows that the effect of cleaning by brush on caries is less (78%, not significant) than chewing stick while the risk associated with finger and charcoal use is about 19.63 times and 7.11 times, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Regional Dental College, Guwahati, Assam, India.
authors.forename: Chandana
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kalita
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India.
authors.forename: Bapukan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Choudhary
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology, Regional Dental College, Guwahati, Assam, India.
authors.forename: Anjan Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Saikia
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Gauhati Medical College, Guwahati, Assam, India.
authors.forename: Pratap Chandra
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Sarma
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002253:Carbonated Beverages / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000379:methods; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data