ABSTRACT
Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of anterior tooth caries in 1000 patients randomly from the population of Dakshina Kannada (South Canara) district. Materials and methods: The present study was conducted on 1000 patients attending the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, A B Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, and rural satellite centers of Nitte University. Each patient was examined for anterior tooth caries on a dental chair under good illumination using sterilized mouth mirror, explorer, tweezer while the teeth were isolated using cotton roles. The patients who had anterior tooth caries were questioned using a standard questionnaire from Oral health survey WHO format 2013, to find its relation associated to age, gender, location, occupation, dietary habits and oral hygiene habits. Results: According to the present study, the prevalence of anterior tooth caries in South Canara population was found to be 27.6%, of which 94.9% cases were seen in the maxillary arch with highest prevalence in the maxillary canines (51.8%) and proximal surfaces (75.7%). The study also revealed predilection to anterior tooth caries in males (55.4%), in the age group of 21 to 30 years and 41 to 60 years (27.5%), in patients from rural locations (49.6%), in those who were unemployed (24.6%) and those who were on a mixed diet (79.7%). Conclusion: The prevalence of anterior tooth caries was most commonly seen in males with predilection to the age group between 21 to 30 and 41 to 60 years with an increased prevalence in maxillary canines and proximal surfaces.
KEYWORDS:Anterior tooth caries, Caries, Decay