Abstract
Aim: To assess the trend of dental caries prevalence and associated factors in 15-year-old adolescents in Belarus over a fi fteen y ear p eriod.
Methods: In 2001-2004 an analytical epidemiological study of 370 school children (189 - 51% of whom were males) aged 15-16 years (mean 15.8 years) was carried out in randomly selected schools and classes in Minsk city. An anonymous questionnaire was completed by every child. It comprised several questions concerning frequency of tooth brushing, type of toothpaste used, frequency of eating sweet products, attendance at the dentist and selfevaluation of oral health. In 2016, a similar survey was carried out involving 215 15-year-old school children (105 (49%) males) in randomly selected classes of the same schools. For both surveys ethical approval was given by the Minsk Health Committee and consent of school children and their parents was obtained. Chi-square and t-tests were used to statistically test the resulting data.
Results: A decrease in caries prevalence among 15-year-olds was observed in Minsk over the 12 year period: mean DMFT was 5.6±4.3 S.D. in 2004 and 2.7±2.2 S.D. in 2016 (p<0.01). Oral hygiene measured by OHI-S improved from OHI-S 2.16±1.8 S.D to OHI-S 1.1±0.8 S.D. (p<0.05). 61±4.3 % of surveyed students self-evaluated their oral health as “excellent” or “good” in 2016 vs 42±2.6 % in 2004, 85±6.1% vs 79±2,8% had attended a dentist within the previous year, 65±5.0% vs 71±3.1 % were brushing teeth twice a day, 75±6.4% vs 51±3.4 % used fluoridated toothpastes, 49±5.1% vs 25±2.9 % ate sweets dailу, 20±2.6% vs 15±2.4 % often drank sweet beverages.
Conclusion: A meaningful reduction of dental caries in 15-year-old adolescents could be explained by improvement of oral hygiene and use of fluoridated toothpastes, as the most others behavioral factors did not improve between 2001-2004 and 2016.
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