Oral health status among teenage schoolchildren in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

In the developing countries, the main dental problem has traditionally been periodontal disease, but recently dental caries has been reported to be increasing. There are some findings showing the same pattern in Tanzania. The aim of the present study was to explore the prevalence of caries and the periodontal status among schoolchildren in Dar es Salaam. The series consisted of pupils of classes 6 and 7 in five primary schools (n = 640, ages 12-18 yr). Two-thirds of the children examined were caries-free. Boys had significantly lower DMF scores than girls, 0.7 and 1.2, respectively. Almost all the children showed early signs of gingivitis and assessment by the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN) showed that in over 50% all sextants of the mouth were affected. In the older age group (15-18 yr) girls had a significantly higher number of periodontally healthy sextants than boys. The results confirm the high prevalence of periodontal problems but show a very low prevalence of caries. Thus, there are no signs of an alarming caries problem in Dar es Salaam, but oral hygiene education should be promoted.