Protein-energy malnutrition coupled with dental caries in rural area school children

ABSTRACT

The study was aimed to determine prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition [PEM] coupled with dental caries in rural area school children at Faisalabad. Normal and malnourished children, further categorized into different degrees of malnutrition, were sorted out as per Jellife's classification. The number of carious teeth in each case were noticed by naked eye. Majority [76.70%] of the children among which more [27.73%] female children were found malnourished. Percentage of female malnourished children against their male counterparts increased towards escalated degrees of malnutrition. Further, majority [52.56%] of the children carried carious teeth; and amongst the malnourished children more [50.40%] appeared with dental caries. The results revealed poor state of health of rural school children at Faisalabad with female children being badly affected. There appeared good% age of malnourished school children in the area suffering from dental caries