Background: Dental caries continues to be a major health issue for worldwide population which decreases individual’s quality of life. In children dental caries and gingivitis are major health problem due to lack of preventive efforts and change in dietary requirement. According to WHO, oral health awareness among children can be promoted through schools by improving good knowledge, attitude and behavior related to oral health that will be helpful for prevention and control of dental diseases among children. Hence there is a necessity to find out oral hygiene practices and occurrence of dental caries among school age children. With this background, researcher make a plan to conduct a survey with the following objective. Objective: To assess dental caries, gingivitis and oral hygiene practices among school age children in a selected community area. Methodology: A quantitative approach with cross-sectional descriptive design was used to assess dental caries, gingivitis and oral hygiene practices among children. 195 school going children residing in rural area of Doiwala block were selected by using convenience sampling technique. Data was collected by pretested questionnaire. Ethical permission was obtained from institutional ethical committee and informed consent was taken from study participants. Results: The statistical finding shows that 184 (94.36%) mothers had not attend any education related to dental hygiene previously. Maximum mothers (97.95%) have taught their child how to brush the teeth. It was surprising to note that 144 (58.96%) of children found to be suffering from dental caries. It was found that (38.79%) of children were suffering with teeth pain. Very less 45(29.9%) children had reported that they had visited dentist. There was significant association found between material use for remove food debris between the teeth’s and dental caries at (p<.001). There was also significant association found between technique use for brushing teeth and dental caries (p<0.003). Conclusion: The research findings showed that school age children give very less importance to oral hygiene. In this study we found greater need of health education and encouraging parents regarding children oral hygiene which can be beneficial to prevent dental caries among school going children.
School Age Children, Gingivitis, Dental caries, Oral hygiene
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