Oral Health Status and Treatment Needs of School Teachers in Chennai

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the oral health status and treatment needs of school teachers in Chennai. Materials & Method: The cluster sampling methodology was used to select the samples. The selection of a school was done in such a way that the particular school type was present in adequate numbers in all the zones. The final sample consisted of 1059 school teachers who were examined from various zones of Chennai. Results: The shallow pockets were seen in 15.8% whereas deep pockets were almost negligible (0.3%); 73.7% had carious lesions with mean DMFT being 4.63±4.04.The most commonly needed treatment modalities were one surface restorations and extraction in 55.2% and 31.4% of subjects respectively. Conclusions: The school teachers had a wide variety of dental diseases/conditions, the most prevalent being periodontal disease and dental caries which increased with age.