Dental caries prevalence and severity in relation to residential factor among (6-9) years school age children in two different area in Baghdad city

The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence and severity of dental caries among(6-9) years old children in two different socioeconomic background area in Baghdad city . Dental caries diagnosis was done according to criteria of WHO(1987). The total sample composed of 240 children (120 males and 120 females). Results showed that the prevalence of dental caries for the total sample was 100%, in another word caries free percentage was zero. Result showed that for the primary dentition dmfs and dmft values were higher for males aged 6-7 and 7-8 years in high socioeconomic class (7.8 & 4.2 , 9.7 & 4.7) than in low socioeconomic class (6.7 & 3.9 ,7.2 & 3.2) with statistically no significant differences ( p> 0.05). For children aged 8-9 years in low socioeconomic area the values were higher compared with those in high socioeconomic area for both gender. For the permanent dentition the high social class showed higher prevalence of dental caries compared with their lower social class counter parts except females aged 8-9 years with low socioeconomic status recorded higher DMFS and DMFT values ( 2.66 & 2.6) compared to those in high socioeconomic (2.6 & 1.8), while the relation was not significant ( p>0.05). Generally the present study showed that the prevalence and severity of dental caries for primary teeth was higher among children with low social class (dmfs & dmft) than those with high social class, while the results were reversed for the permanent teeth.