A sampling survey of deciduous teeth caries in 3-5-year-old population in Guangdong Province (2015-2016)

To explore the dental deciduous teeth caries among 3-5-year-old children in Guangdong Province and to provide information support for oral health care of Guangdong Province.

A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 2592 urban and rural residents in Guangdong. Subjects were from three different age groups (aged 3, 4 and 5), with 864 children in each group. Male and female were 1∶1 in each group. An equal sized sampling with stratified multistage method was used. According to the criteria of clinical dentition examination of the fourth national oral health survey, the dental caries in deciduous teeth were recorded using CPI probe. And then the prevalence, the mean dmft (decayed-missing-filled tooth), the filled rate were calculated.

The prevalence of dental caries in deciduous teeth in the three groups of aged 3, aged 4, aged 5 were 58.33%, 68.40%, and 78.47% independently; the mean dmft were 3.03, 4.34, and 5.69 independently; the filled rate were 0.92%, 1.47%, 1.26% independently. There were significant differences in the prevalence and the mean dmft between urban and rural areas and among different age groups. There was no significant difference in the prevalence regarding the gender in each group, The mean dmft in the group of aged 3 in female were higher than that in male, while no gender differences were found in the groups of aged 4 and aged 5. The prevalence and the mean dmft of 5-year-old children were higher than that in 2005.

The 3-5-year-old children of Guangdong Province had a really high prevalence of dental caries in deciduous teeth. More than 98% of the caries are unfilled, treatment need is extremely huge. The 3-5-year-old children are the main target for us to prevent the early childhood caries.