Objective: To estimate the prevalence and experience of dental caries among 12-year-olds in Northwest Russia.
Methods: Altogether 355 schoolchildren at the age of 12 were selected at random from 3 urban and 4 rural areas in the Arkhangelsk region. Girls comprised 53.7% of the sample. Caries experience was assessed at D3 level by a single calibrated examiner. The prevalence of caries was estimated with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using Wilson's method. Caries experience was estimated using DMFT index and presented as means and 95% CIs. Dichotomous and numerical data were analysed by chi-squared tests and Mann-Whitney tests, respectively.
Results: The prevalence of caries was 83.4% (95% CI 79.2-86.9) with the mean DMFT of 2.95 (95% CI 2.70-3.20). On average, there were 1.56 (95% CI 1.37-1.76) decayed, 0.03 (95% CI 0.01-0.06) missing and 1.34 (95%CI 1.16-1.52) filled teeth. No gender differences in the prevalence of caries in any of the settings or in the full sample were observed. The overall caries experience was higher in urban than in rural areas (3.38 vs. 2.64, p = 0.001). The mean number of decayed teeth in urban areas was lower (1.29 vs. 1.77, p = 0.009), but the number of filled teeth was greater (2.02 vs. 0.85, p = 0.001) than in rural areas.
Conclusions: The prevalence and experience of caries among 12-year-olds in the Arkhangelsk region is greater than in most European countries. Urgent public health measures at both population and individual levels are needed to improve the situation.