A DENTAL SURVEY IN KATHMANDU AND A NEIGHBORING BALAMBU VILLAGE, NEPAL

Abstract

One hundred and ninety five 6-25-year-old individuals of the fifth and sixth grades in a school in Kathmandu in 1977, and 300 9-20-year-old individuals of the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades in 1980 were examined according to the criteria of the four grade assessment of dental caries and Ramfjord's indices for periodontal status. In 1980, 98 children and 75 of their family members, chiefly their mothers, in a kindergarten in Kathmandu, and 133 neighboring villagers were also examined.
In the permanent dentition of school children, prevalence rates of dental caries were usually under 10 % and even affected children had few DMFTs. Thus, DMFTs/100 erupted teeth were calculated to be less than 1 and DMFT indices were extremely low, 0.5 at the most. Dental caries prevalence in family members of kindergarten and villagers (15-54-year-old age groups) was under 1/3. DMFTs/100 erupted teeth were under 6 and DMFT indices were very low, usually under 1.5. Decayed teeth were almost never seen under 9 years of age.
In primary dentition in kindergarten children, prevalence was 1/3 of those examined. deft/100 erupted teeth was 5 and deft index was 1.
Almost all of the examined subjects had soft dental deposits. Prevalence of calculus accumulation was about 20, 40, and 60%in the age groups of under 9, 10-14 and 15-19 years old, respectively. This rate was over 80-85 % in the case of individuals older than 20 years of age. None of the examined subjects showed signs of intense gingivitis but symptoms of advanced periodontal involvement increased gradually among the subjects showing Ramfjord's PDI 4 until 20 years. Over 80% of the subjects scored PDI 4 or greater (even PDI 5 and PDI 6) in people above 20 years.