Dental caries status of 5-7 year old children in three districts in Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique

Abstract

This paper presents the baseline data of a longitudinal study assessing the dental caries status of 5-7 year old children in Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique. Approximately one hundred 5-7 year-old-children from randomly selected schools in each of three locations (formal urban, informal urban and rural) were examined using the 1997 WHO Oral Health Survey Criteria. Thirty nine percent of the entire sample were found to bc caries-free, however this differed from location to location and from country to country. The overall mean dmft was 2.4 (SD 2.8), with the decayed component being 2.0 and the missing component 0.4. Of the children examined, only three had filled teeth. The mean dmft was significantly higher (p-value < 0.05) in Tanzania and Uganda than in Mozambique. There were also significant differences in the mean dmft between the various locations in Uganda and Mozambique. The prevalence of dental caries was not consistent across the formal urban, informal urban and rural locations in the three countries studied. It is thus essential to desegregate oral health status data to the most local level possible.