Prevalence of fluorosis among children aged 12 years, living in urban and peri-urban areas of Quetta district, Balochistan

Fluorosis is a condition of structural disorder of the tooth surface during tooth development, which is denoted as enamel hypoplasia. The most common cause of dental fluorosis is the chronic exposure to excessive fluoride particularly in drinking water at the younger age. The aims of this study were to determine prevalence of fluorosis among primary school children in urban and peri-urban areas of Quetta district. Cross sectional study. This study was conducted at Bolan Medical College, Quetta for a period of one month from March to April 2009. Clinical dental examination of school children aged 12 years was conducted for evidence of dental fluorosis using Dean's fluorosis index and the criteria mentioned in WHO oral health surveys methods 4[th] edition 1997. A total of 153 school children aged 12 years,78 [51%] boys and 75 [49%] girls, who have lived in urban and rural areas of Quetta sub district, were randomly selected from the four schools including boys and girls both. Fluorosis was found to be more prevalent in urban school children [60%] as compared with children living in peri-urban areas [47%] with OR .614 [.323, 1.166] and p-value .135. The boys had a slightly higher prevalence of fluorosis as compared with girls 56% and 52% respectively. OR .837 [.443, 1.582] and p-value .584 recorded which were not statically significant. This study highlighted the high prevalence of fluorosis, more than half of the school children, in urban and rural areas of Quetta district Pakistan. Comparatively, fluorosis is more prevalent in urban areas than in rural

Dental caries status among children aged 12-14 years in urban and rural areas of Lasbella district, Balochistan

To assess the dental caries status among 12 to 14 years old children in urban and rural schools. A cross sectional was done. The study was carried out at Lasbella District of Balochistan in October 2010. The duration of study was one month. The study was conducted in one urban and one rural school. The study population was consist of 108 students aged 12-14 year. The DMFT score was recorded on WHO recommended forms for dental caries status. The study period was one month and was conducted in one urban and two rural schools of Lasbella district. The study population consisted of 108 students and out of them 55.6% belonged to rural school and 44.4% belong to urban school. The mean DMFT of rural was higher 2.63 +/- 2.44 as compared to the urban population 2.08 +/- 2. DMFT was highest at the age of 13 years 2.55 +/- 2.17. Males had a higher mean of DMFT 2.46 +/- 2.17 as compared to females 2.32 +/- 2.44. Although there were no significant differences of means of DMFT by age, sex and location of school. Out of the total urban students 39.6% of school children were caries free as compared to 20% of students in the rural population. Our study highlighted the extent of dental disease in urban and rural areas of district Lasbella. There is need and high demand for dental services and awareness raising programs in these areas

HIV/AIDS control practices by dentists of Balochistan - Pakistan

A cross-sectional survey was carried out in Balochistan province of Pakistan to assess the knowledge, perception and infection control practices towards HIV/AIDS among the dentists. The study period was two months and was conducted in Quetta district. Data were collected by mailing questionnaire to 115 dentists, out of which 86 responded [response rate 74.8%].Majority of dentists [63.3%] had overall poor infection control practices. The predictors of infection control practices were found to be sex, marital status and educational attainment. There was a significant association between knowledge, perception and age of the respondents with Spearman's correlation coefficient [P <0.0001], however age was not associated with practice. Infection control practices were found to be strongly associated with overall knowledge and perception of the dentists on HIV/AIDS. The female dentists were found to have increased knowledge on HIV/AIDS as compared to their male counterparts. Regarding the intentions to provide dental treatment to the PLWHAs, less than 25% of the dentists expressed their willingness to provide treatment to HIV infected patients. There is an urgent need to conduct trainings and workshops for the dentists, and the government should provide adequate infection control equipment to government hospitals in Balochistan