INTRODUCTION

“Life is short. Smile while u still have teeth.”(Mallory Hopkins)

Dental caries is an infection of teeth in which there is Dimineralization of hard tissue of the teeth
(Enamel, Dentin, Cementum) which leads to cavity. The lesion can occur if there is sustainable
environment present in the oral cavity. Dental caries is not atypical infectious disease it can
occur if the oral hygiene is not maintained properly.1 Dental caries continues to be a major health
issue for worldwide populations.2

The WHO reports 60 to 90% of school children worldwide have experienced carries. It is the
Parent who Guide children with certain instructions on the maintenance of oral health. Dental
carries is an infectious disease that can overwhelm bacterial colonies a tooth surface in the
presence of dietary carbohydrates, especially refined sugar. If untreated there are chances of
brain abscess. The Prevention of dental carries can be approached in three ways use of Fluorides,
reduction of frequent consumption of sugar and application of pit and fissures sealants.3

According to WHO the world wide prevalence of Dental carries is 60 to 90% school
children. According to WHO the aim of” health for all by the year 2000” the global status for
children, should be that 50% of children between the age of 5 & 6 years will be carries free and
at 12 years of age they should have 3 or fewer decade, missing or field teethes. In India carries is
the commonest disease in school age, high rate due to lack of appropriate care and in adequate
knowledge regarding dental hygiene. Dental health is hence dental health education and
motivation shall be more effective.4
 NEED OF THE STUDY

Life style has been changed as compared to earlier lifestyle now days children are attracted
towards the fast food, canned food and chemical containing food. After having all these teeth
despoiling foods, children even don’t bother to brush or rise their teeth and parents also remains
least concern about the dental health of their children. All this activities leads to dental carries in
the children

A study was conducted by H Grewal, M Verma, A Kumar(2009),on prevalence of

dental carries and treatments need in the rural child population of Nainital District, Uttaranchal.
Dental carries is a rapidly emerging oral health problem amongst the children of india its
incidence in different states varies between 31% and 89% this study was undertaken with a twin
objective of assessing the prevalence of dental carries in part of Uttaranchal state and designing
the interventional strategies with a view to attend the oral health care needs of children. A total
of 722 school children in the age range of 7 -12 years of Nainital District were examined using
WHO (1997) criteria. An overall carries prevalence of 77.7 % was recorded, which is 67.26% in
the age group of 7-9 years, and 80.86% in 10-12 years respectively. It was observed that there
were greater treatment needs in the older age group. Another significant finding of the study was
that the 59.96% required restorative treatment out of the various dental treatment needs
evaluated.5

The children are the most important segment of our population and intend to receive attention
from family, school, society and Government children are truly the foundation of a society
because healthy children grow to become healthy and strong adult who can actively participate in
the development activities of a nation. Statistical information shows that about 80-90% of the
children in the world have dental carries.6

In India, majority of the population (70% to 72%) live in the rural area which more than
40% are children, of these children more to be vulnerable to oral health problem due to socio
economic and demographic factors such as reduced awareness, poor transport facilities and lack
of access to quality dental care.7

Statement of the problem

A study to assess the knowledge regarding prevalence of dental carries among parents of school
going children in selected area.

Objectives

 To determine the level of knowledge of school going children regarding prevention

dental carries using a structured knowledge questionnaire.
 To find out the association between knowledge score of parents of school going children
with their selected socio demographic variables.

Operational Definition:

 Assess:
Process of various practices and techniques used by individuals to prevent teeth from
dental carries.

 Knowledge:
In this study knowledge refers to the information that parents of school going children
regarding dental carries.

 Prevention:
In this study the prevention refers to the action of stopping something from happening or
arising.

 Dental carries:
In this study dental carries represent any type of tooth decay or cavities among all the
children.

 School going children:

Refers to the child whether boy or girl, belonging to the school going age group.
 Assumption:

 The researcher assumes that the study participant will give honest response.
 The researcher assumes that the study participant will have less knowledge regarding
dental carries.

Delimitation of the study:

Research study is delimited to:

 Study is limited only to the rural setting.

 The duration of data collection was 7 days.
 Review of literature

Review of literature refers to the activities in identifying searching for information on

logic and developing an understanding of the state of knowledge on topic. An extensive
review of literature was done by the investigator to gain insight into the selected problem
and it is organized. The Analytical review not only presents the summary of the facts but
evaluates the relationship and contrast findings of the facts in literature, thus the key
themes are identified.

Mandal KP Tewari, chawla (2001) conducted a descriptive survey on prevalence and

severity of dental carries and treatment need among population in east state of india the
sample size was 2060 children within the age group of 5-6,15-16in which they found that
dental carries is higher in 5-6 years 52.4% in urban and 48.3% in rural.8

Peter D, Fernandes.PJ, MenezesLJ, Thangachan S,Crasta S,Davy N,conducted a

descriptive research design in which the subjects consisted of 100 higher primary school
children from a government school, who were selected using purposive sampling method.
Data were collected by administering a structured knowledge questionnaire. Data were
analyzed using descriptive statistic such as mean, median and standard deviation, and
inferential statistic such as chi-square test was used. Majority of the school children
(50%) head average knowledge, 33% had good knowledge, 16% had poor knowledge,
and 1%had very good knowledge regarding the prevention of dental carries there was a
significant association betweeen the level of knowledge and the selected baseline
variables such as age.9

Doctor M.S Minor Babu, Dr SVSG Nirmala, Dr N.SivaKumar study was conducted that
showed the prevalence of dental carries was 65.6%. High prevalence of dental carries
was seen urban school children of 7-9 and 10-12year children. Among them oral hygiene
status was observed to be poor in rural school children. Dental carries prevalence was
higher in female children even with good oral hygiene.10
 METHODOLOGY

• Research Approach: Quantitative approach.

• Research Design: Descriptive study.

• Population: parents of school going children of Uttarakhand.

• Sample: Sample are school going children residing in badonwala village, Doiwala block

Dehradun District, Uttarakhand.

• Sample Size: 60.

• Sample Technique: Non probability convenient sampling technique.

• Research Study Setting: Badonwala village (rural area) Doiwala block; district

Dehradun (Uttarakhand).

Sample Criteria:

Inclusion criteria:
 Present during the time of data collection.
 Able to understand Hindi language.
Exclusion criteria:
 Physical or mental Attenuation.
 Child with oral cavity disease, recent surgeries, cleft lip or palate or oral cancer.

• Tools:
The instrument selected for the study is structured knowledge questionnaire.
• PART-A: Socio-demographic profile.
• PART-B: Structured knowledge questionnaire on dental carries.
Data collection process:

Ethical permission will be taken from the principal of school.

Structured knowledge questionnaire will be administered.

Data will be collected.

Plan for data analysis

The collected data will be analysis by using descriptive and inferential statistic.

Budget:

S. No Items Estimated budget

1 Stationary 1000
2 Binding 1500
3 Printing 1000
Total 3500
Ethical consideration:

 Written permission from the principal of Himalayan College of nursing,

S.R.H.U.
 Written permission from ethical committee, S.R.H.U.
 Informed written consent will be taken from the participants.
References:

1.Janhvi,M.Geo.knowledge and attitude of parents regarding children’s primary teeth and their
willingness for treatment; journals of pharmaceutical science and research;2017;vol 9;194-198; available
from..

http://jpsr.pharmainfo..in/documents/volumes/vol9Issue02/jpsr09021723.pdf.

2. Suresh BS. Department of Pedodontics and preventive Dentistry, Dental College, Moradabad

3. Archana singh & Prabhakar S bais” Department of food & nutrition, institute of home science. Dr. B.R
Ambedkar University U.P April 23,2014.

4. Department of child health nursing, father muller college of nursing, Manglore, Karnatak.

5. Soumya.s Vivekananda college of nursing bassappa hospital, Chitradurga (Karnataka)./2011.

6. R. mahejabeen,P Sudha,SS Kulkarni,R Anegundi, The prevalence of dental carries and treatment
needs in the age group of 6-12 years was estimated among 1500 childred of Hubli-Dharwad city year
2006,volume:24,page:19-22.

7. Archana Agarwal1 Natasha Gambhir2,Varun Gupta3,Rinku Garg for evaluation of oral health status of
School Going Children in Gaziabad City Original Research Article Santosh University Journal of Health
Science.2015;1(2);85-87.

8. K p Mandal, Tewari et al, dental carries and treatment need among population is east state of India on
September 2001 http//medind.nick.in.

9. Peter D,Fernandes PJ, Menezes LJ Thanganchan S,Crasta S,Davy N, et al.A descriptive study on
knowledge of school children regarding prevention of dental carries. muller J Med Sci Res2016;7:32-4.

10. Dr M.S. Minor Babu, Dr SVSG Nirmala, Dr N.Sivakumar Oral Hygiene Status of 7-12 year old
School Children in Rural and Urban Population of Nellore District journal of the Indian association of
public health dentistry volume:2011.
 TOOLS

PERSONAL PROFILE:

1).