Dental status of schoolchildren from a Danube town of Romania

Epidemiological studies on the dental status of schoolchildren from Danube Romanian cities are limited. Dental status of schoolchildren from the first and sixth grade from Fetesti, a town with low pollution on the Danube River, was evaluated. The investigated population consisted of 276 children (160 boys) from two schools from Fetesti: 121 children (61 boys) aged 6-7 years from the first grade (mean age 7y3mo) and 155 children (79 boys) aged 11-12 years from the sixth grade (mean age 11y7mo). The percentage of caries-free children in both samples is very low. 30% of the first grades have 9 primary teeth and 1.5 permanent teeth affected. For the sixth grade, 30% of the children have approximately 5 affected permanent teeth (SiC 30%) and 10% have 6 affected permanent teeth (SiC 10%). Regarding the status of the FPM, about 28% of the first grades and 63% of the sixth grades have caries on the FPM. Prevention programs are needed in order to achieve the WHO Global Goals for Oral Health for 2015 (SiC3 for 12 years olds). Early local preventive strategies, addressing schoolchildren from the first grade, can have better efficiency in helping decrease caries prevalence on FPM. Keywords: epidemiological data, schoolchildren, Danube town