Relationship between gingival health and dental caries in children aged 7-12 years

Okada Mitsugi

Kuwahara Satsuki

Kaihara Yasutaka

Ishidori Hiroyuki

Kawamura Makoto

Miura Kazuo

Nagasaka Nobuo

Journal of Oral Science

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between gingival health and dental caries in elementary school children in Japan. The subjects were 474 children aged 7 to 12 years who attended dental check-ups at an elementary school. The Oral Rating Index for Children, which consists of five categories (+2, +1, 0, -1, -2), was used to rate the findings of the gingival health e:xamination. The dental examination was performed using the WHO caries diagnostic criteria for DMFT. Children were divided into three groups: a healthier group (H-group) made up of those scoring +2 (excellent) or +1 (good), an equivocal group (E-group) made up of those scoring 0, and a gingival less-healthy group (L-group) made up of those scoring -2 (very poor) or -1 (poor). Overallpercentages for the H-group, E-group and L-groupwere 48.3 %,21.5 -0x1.fbf00000008p+0nd 30.2 %, respectively. Thenumber in the L-group increased with increasing age. The mean scores of the DT and DMFT in the H-group were significantly lower than those in the L-group (p< 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). The results suggest that oral hygiene instruction should be given to children in order to motivate self-care, not only to avoid dentalcaries but also to prevent gingivitis. (J. Oral Sci. 42, 151-155,2000)

gingivitis

DMFT

oral self-care

elementary school children

Medical sciences [ 490 ]

eng

Nihon University School of Dentistry

Copyright (c) 2000 Nihon University School of Dentistry

[ISSN] 1343-4934

[NCID] AA11208439

[PMID] 12930136