Demands and Dental Treatment Needs among Children Attending the Clinic of Pedodontics, College of dentistry-Babylon University

Abstract

Background: Demands and dental treatment needs were assessed among Children Attending the Clinic of Pedodontics, College of dentistry-Babylon University, for the first time.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate dental demands and needs of group of children attending clinic of Pedodontics in the College of Dentistry, Babylon University.

Methodology: A descriptive clinical study was done for random sample of children. The sample consists of 400 child (200 males and 200 females). The ages of those children were range between 5-15 years. Children were examined in the peadodontic and Preventive Dentistry clinic /College of Dentistry / Babylon University during the period of 1 march 2013 until 1 April 2013. Data were analyzed through using descriptive statistical analysis, which include (Percentage arithmetic mean and standard deviation).

Results: The study showed that toothache 48.8% formed the most frequent demands, followed by dental trauma, orthodontics problems, and then preventive measures. Concerning treatment needs; 98.5% of children needed dental treatment because of dental caries, while 97.8 of children needed periodontal treatment. In addition, 20.8% of children needed treatment because of traumatic dental injuries, as well as 18.0% of children needed orthodontics treatment, while only 6.2% of children needed preventive measures. Furthermore, two or more surface restoration needed in 32.7% of children, while 27.2% of children needed pulp care, then 22.8% of children needed one surface restoration. Data of this study reflect that, the expressed need or demand for dental care falls short of the normative need among Iraqi children.

Conclusions: There is a far distance between the normative requirements and demands for treatment, where that most parents came to visit dental clinic only after their children feel with severe pain. There was a lack of health awareness regarding oral and dental health in children and their parents.

Recommendations: The study recommended the need for collaborative efforts made by the sectors of primary health care, in addition to the faculties of dentistry in order to raise the level of health awareness with regard to the health of the mouth and teeth and by increasing the efficiency of workers in this field through brought into the training courses and increase the efficiency of the quality of services provided, in addition to holding seminars periodically with the participation of media for the purpose of educating the people.