Dental caries experience and oral hygiene status among institutionalized orphans of bhubaneswar city, odisha: A comprehensive dental healthcare program outcome

Abstract

Aim and objective: To assess the dental caries experience and oral hygiene status among the institutionalized orphans of Bhubaneswar city, Odisha. Materials and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 14 orphanages consisting of 729 inmates aged 3–18 years. An assessment form was recoded for Decayed Missing Filled Tooth Index (DMFT/dmft), oral hygiene index-simplified [OHI(S)] along with a questionnaire to record the participants’ sugar consumption and oral hygiene practices. The Student’s t-test was used to analyze discrete data and analysis of variance for continuous data. A binary grading system categorizing participants as “DMFT/dmft = 0” or “DMFT/dmft ≥ 1” for comparison between dental caries experience oral hygiene practices and the sugar consumption was done. The mean OHI(S) score was compared with the oral hygiene practices. A p ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The caries prevalence of this study population was 41.4%. Mean DMFT/dmft was 1.07 ± 1.56 for permanent teeth and 0.96 ± 2.11 for primary dentition. The method of toothbrushing and the frequency of sugar intake were statistically associated with the presence of dental caries (p = 0.002). The OHI(S) score was 2.09 ± 1.21 for the entire sample which inferred a fair oral hygiene status. Circular method of cleaning and changing the toothbrush within 3 months reported least mean OHI(S) scores. Conclusion: The oral health status revealed a huge occurrence of oral diseases and unmet oral health needs in the form of untreated dental caries and fair oral hygiene status. This was largely due to their poor oral health knowledge and limited availability of materials for the maintenance of proper oral hygiene. Clinical significance: Even though the results of this study are fairly modest, it is enough to speculate that there is an apparent need for dental health programs to target the institutionalized orphans to improve their oral health status and prevent oral diseases.