Dental caries trend among adolescents in Lagos, South-West Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

The past few decades have witnessed a changing trend in dental caries prevalence among Nigerians; thus the need to investigate the current trend of caries among adolescents Nigerians.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the prevalence and severity of dental caries among adolescents in Lagos, South-west of Nigeria.

METHODS

The World Health Organization (WHO) methodology for basic oral health surveys was employed. The study population was 11 to 16 year-old adolescents from primary and secondary schools in Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria. Surulere local government area (LGA) of Lagos State, South-West Nigeria was selected as the location of this study as the LGA is quite cosmopolitan having Nigerians of all walks of life. Information on sex, age, socioeconomic status and ethnicity was obtained. The dentition of subjects was examined for dental caries, fillings and missing teeth.

RESULTS

Six hundred adolescents of age 11 to 16 years were studied. A high caries-free prevalence of 457 (76.2%) was found among the subjects. Mean(SD) DMFT (decayed, missing, filled teeth) of 0.72 (1.67) and mean DMF% (decayed, missing, filled per cent) of 2.62 (6.17) were recorded among the study population. Older adolescents had higher caries erates than the younger ones. More females than males had caries while the socioeconomic status did not seem to influence caries experience. DT (decayed teeth) was the major contributor of the DMFT index. Among the ethnic groups the Igbo and Edo/Delta had the highest caries experience while the Efik/Ibibio, Yoruba and Hausa had the lowest. A restorative index of 1% was recorded, showing poor utilization of dental health care services by the population.

CONCLUSION

This study shows an increasing caries trend when compared to previous Nigerian studies despite the mean DMFT of 0.72 being better than the WHO target of 1.5DMFT. Ready availability of sweets and confectionaries to all classes of people in the country compounded by poor knowledge of and utilization of preventive and restorative oral health care services may be contributory to the current trend.