A sampling survey of permanent teeth caries in 12-15-year-old population in Guangdong Province (2015-2016)

To explore the caries status of permanent teeth among 12-15-year-old population in Guangdong Province, and to provide information support for oral health care.

A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 7680 urban and rural residents in Guangdong Province. Subjects were from four different age groups (aged 12, 13, 14 and 15), with 1920 people in each group. An equal-sized stratified multistage randomly sampling was used, with a gender ratio of half to half in each group. According to the criteria of clinical dentition examination of the fourth national oral health survey, the crown caries of permanent teeth in the whole mouth were recorded using CPI probe. And then the prevalence, the mean DMFT (decayed-missing-filled tooth), the filled rate were calculated.

The prevalence of crown caries in the groups of aged 12, aged 13, aged 14, aged 15 were 43.07%, 45.31%, 49.69%, 52.86%, respectively. The mean DMFTs were 1.06, 1.13, 1.38, 1.59, respectively. The filled rates were 20.19%, 21.50%, 22.86%, 21.33%, respectively. The prevalence and the mean DMFT increased with age (P < 0.001), and both were higher than that in 2005. There were significant differences in the prevalence and the mean DMFT between urban and rural areas and between male and female (P < 0.001).

According to the criteria of the mean DMFT in 12-year-old population of WHO, the severity of caries of permanent teeth in Guangdong was regarded as "very low". But the severity was higher than that in 2005, and the filled rate was low.