Oral cleanliness of school children of Ghazi Tehsil, district Haripur

ABSTRACT

This study was done from 07-01-2008 to 28-02-2008 to compare the oral hygiene status and level of cleanliness of 11-15 year old children of the government and private schools at the Ghazi Tehsil, District Haripur of North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan. The data were recorded on a Proforma that included child's age, sex, school of attendance, Debris Index [DI] score, Calculus Index [CI] score, Simplified Oral Hygiene Index [OHI-S] score and the Level of Cleanliness [LOC]. DI score and CI score were calculated and combined to obtain OHI-S score for each child. Based on the OHI-S, the LOC was categorized as Good, Fair or Poor. There were 101, 11 to 15 year [mean age 13.3 years SD +/- 1.41] old children, among them 546 [53.6%] were boys and 473 [46.4%] girls. The mean OHI-S for boys was 2.71 and for girls was 2.65 and this was statistically significant [P<0.05]. Majority [75.3%] of the children had Fair LOC, 193 [18.9%] of the children had Poor LOC while only fifty nine [5.8%] of the children had Good LOC. The LOC of children of both the government and private schools in the Ghazi Tehsil was considered as Fair