Causes and Severity of Neglected Dental Caries in Rural Sri Lankan Primary School Children
K.L.M. Kumari,
C. Perera,
H.M.P. Perera,
K.M. Somarathna and
P.A.A. Chandrasiri
Additional contact information
K.L.M. Kumari: Department of Health Services, Southern Province, Sri Lanka
C. Perera: Base Hospital Kiribathgoda, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka
H.M.P. Perera: Base Hospital Colombo East, Mulleriyawa, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka
K.M. Somarathna: German Sri Lanka Friendship hospital for women, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka
P.A.A. Chandrasiri: Department of Health Services, Southern Province, Sri Lanka
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, 2025, vol. 12, issue 3, 115-123
Abstract:
Untreated dental caries is one of the most prevalent childhood morbidities worldwide, yet the clinical consequences of neglected dental caries are underreported in the literature. This study aimed to quantify and describe the clinical manifestations of untreated dental caries in children, arising from neglected oral health. Additionally, it sought to investigate the parental and health system factors associated with the neglect of dental caries in children. This cross-sectional survey was conducted among 5–7-year-old children residing in the Monaragala district of Sri Lanka. Children with dental caries (dmft > 0) were included in the analysis, with a total sample size of 284. Sociodemographic data of the children and their parents were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Dental caries was assessed and recorded using the WHO Basic Methods, while the clinical consequences of untreated caries were evaluated using the pufa index. The mean dmft, mean pufa score, and mean pufa ratio for the study population were 4.52 ± 0.3, 1.05 ± 1.5, and 22.5% ± 2.8, respectively. Clinical consequences of untreated dental caries were observed in 47.5% of the children. Pufa scores were significantly associated with the father’s age (p = 0.01), father’s occupational category (p
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijrsi/d ... -issue-3/115-123.pdf (application/pdf)
https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijrsi/artic ... ary-school-children/ (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bjc:journl:v:12:y:2025:i:3:p:115-123
Access Statistics for this article
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation is currently edited by Dr. Renu Malsaria
More articles in International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation from International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dr. Renu Malsaria ().