Impact of education and monthly income on caries index of community living in the rural area of Multan - a cross-sectional survey

Background and Objective: Dental decays and periodontal diseases are among the most common ailments of the oral cavity. The decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index defines the number of the decayed teeth, no of the treated teeth, and the number of teeth missing in oral cavity owing to decay. People’s monthly income and level of education influence their behavior toward oral health. The objective of this survey was to assess the impact of education and monthly income on the caries index of the community of Jahangirabad Multan, Pakistan.
Methods: This 3 months survey-based study was conducted among 380 participants from the community of Jahangirabad Multan city. The oral health status of all participants was assessed by using the DMFT index. All individuals with permanent dentition were included in this study.
Results: There were 209 (55%) males and 171 (45) females. Age range of the participants was from 15 to 40 years. The mean and standard deviation of the DMFT index were 1.5 ± 0.156, the range of DMFT score was from 0 to 8. The significant association between the mean DMFT score and level of education was observed (p-value = 0.036).
Conclusion: The population of the rural area of Jahangirabad has an average of 1.5 teeth affected with dental caries. The level of dental caries is found to be inversely proportional to the level of education implying that improving education level of the communities may be one of the factors that can contribute to the reduction in the burden of caries in the rural communities of the country.