ABSTRACT
Introduction: One of the best ways to evaluate the activity and efficiency of a health care system is to assess WHO advised indices. In oral health systems, one of the most important of these indices is DMFT index
Objective: The aim of this research was to assess DMFT index in 12-year-old children in East of Gilan province in 2003
Materials and Methods: 855 students at age 12 were examined in three cities of Langrood, Lahijan and Siahkal, in this descriptive- analytic cross sectional study. Staged clustering randomly chose samples. Method of clinical examination was by Visual- tactile and questionnaire. Data about gender, parental education frequency of tooth brushing and number of children in the family was also recorded
Results: The mean DMFT index was 1.65, 1.49, and 1.60 respectively and about 33.3%, 39.3%, 34.4% of population was caries -free [DMFT=0]. There was a positive correlation between five and more children in the family, and more than 2 times of brushing each day with DMFT. The correlation between filling teeth and education was also significant
Conclusion: The study populations are grouped in low caries group according to WHO criteria in Iran as an Eastern Mediterranean region. More efforts are needed to attain DMFT =0 for 50% of 12 year old population