Primary caries in Vietnamese children in 2019

Abstract

The study focuses on primary caries in Vietnamese children in 2019 to provide insights to design measures to prevent dental
caries for preschool children in the near future. A cross-sectional study with a sample size of 4028 children divided into 2 age groups (6-8 years old and 9-11 years old). The subjects were selected from 14 provinces to represent the whole country using the randomized, multi-stage stratifcation method. Primary caries was recognized by the tooth decay - loss - fllings index (DMFT) and the surface decay - loss - fllings index (DMFS) according to the World Health Organization criteria combined with the early tooth decay lesion of ICDAS’s index. The results showed that the rate of primary caries in the age group of 6-8 years old  was very high (86.4%). On average, each child had decayed 6.21 teeth , while the percentage of treated teeth was low. This result showed that it is necessary to enhance dental care for preschool children.