Open Access: View PDF

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21088/ijde.0974.6099.11218.4

Abstract

Background: Oral health is considered as an vital component of various dimensions of general health well being. The magnitude of caries varies from region to region with respect to geographical distribution. The reasons may be due factors like age, sex, dietary pattern, socioeconomic conditions.

Objectives: To estimate the impact of Socioeconomic status and other social factors on the prevalence of carries.

Materials And Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was carried out in Kurnool population between June 2016 and May 2017. Study participants were patients attending the outpatient department of Dental ospital, Kurnool. A total of 400 patients attending the outpatient department were recruited for the study. 

Results: With respect to association between socioeconomic status and caries 84.2% of those belonging to lower SES had caries when compared to middle SES (10.8%) and higher SES (4.9%). This difference was found to be statistically significant. Prevalence of caries was high in those who were alcohol users (72.6%) when compared to non alcohol users (56.6%). 83.7% of tobacco users were having caries when compared to 33.8% among non tobacco users.

Conclusion: From our study it can be concluded that the association between socioeconomic status and caries cannot be denied. Implementation of oral health programmes with multipronged strategy to address various socioeconomic factors in addition to effective counseling for those who have behaviours like tobacco and alcohol use can act as effective tool in bringing down the burden of caries problem among population of developing countries.

Keywords: Caries; Socioeconomic Status; Tobacco; Alcohol.

Corresponding Author : Krishnaveni Marella, Senior Lecturer, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, KVG Dental College and Hospital, Kurunjibag, Sullia D.K, Karnataka 574327, India.