Prevalence of dental caries in school children from a suburban area in Tripoli, Libya.

Seven hundred and twenty school children of primary school grades 5 and 6 in Hadba Sargia area in Tripoli were examined for dental caries. The mean DMFT index for the whole sample of children was 1.58. The DT component comprised 1.34 and MT component 0.21 of DMFT score, which made 42.22% and 13.33% of total children sample, respectively. The amount FT component was 0.03 (1.39%) of all children with DMFT examined. The number of children with at least one DMFT score was 410 (56.94%) of the total study sample. In children with poor oral hygiene, DMFT score was significantly higher (1.91) than in those with good oral hygiene (0.85) (P less than 0.01). Children whose mothers had low education exhibited a higher total DMFT score (1.85) than those whose mothers had high education (1.16).