Background: Dental caries is the most common oral disease of mankind; however, there are limited data on the oral status of adolescents in northern Nigeria. Recently, the World Health Organization set the global caries goal as significant caries (SiC) index score of <3. This study was designed to appraise the magnitude of the disease among adolescents in northern Nigeria.
Objectives: The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence, pattern, and severity of caries among 10-12-year-old adolescents in Kano, Nigeria.
Materials and methods: Six hundred and ninety-four school-aged children were selected through a multi-stage sampling of 10-12-year-old children in Kano and examined for dental caries using the WHO protocols. Data analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 20 Inc. Chicago IL, USA).
Results: The prevalence of caries was 22.9% with mean DMFT and SiC scores of 0.5 (±1.2) and 3.7 respectively. DMFT >0 ranged from 1 to 8. Tooth 85 (the right mandibular second primary molar) and tooth 36 (left mandibular permanent first molar) had the highest caries count for primary and permanent teeth respectively. More lesions occurred on the left mandible in primary and permanent teeth. The second primary molars and the first permanent molars were most affected by the disease.
Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries was low among male adolescents in Kano as evidenced by the low mean DMFT/dmft scores; however, the condition exceeded the recommended WHO thresholds. Caries occurred more frequently on teeth 85 and 36.
Keywords: Adolescent; DMFT; SiC index; SiC/DMFT ratio; caries.
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