Mohammed Sultan Al-Darwish
BDS, MSc, GBOI, DICOI
President, Qatar Dental Society
Qatar
Geodemographical features
Qatar
is a peninsula located halfway down the west coast of the Arabian Gulf.
The total land area of Qatar is approximately 11,521 square kilometers.
The total population were 1,920,798.
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Dental caries currently represents the most common chronic disease
among children.
It is defined as a multi-factorial infectious disease caused by plaque
bacteria, as a by-product of their metabolism of fermentable
carbohydrates, which then diffuse into dental hard tissues and dissolve
their mineral contents (Featherstone et al., 2008).
It is five times more common than asthma and seven times more common
than hay fever (Report of the surgeon General, 2000).
Dental
Caries
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Between September 2011 till March 2012 the first to
study the prevalence of dental caries was conducted.
The study showed a data on dental caries among 12-14
years school children in Qatar.
Three dentists with previous experience in
epidemiological surveys of dental caries were invited to
participate in this study.
Inter and intra-examiner reliability was measured
through Kappa statistics between the three dentist.
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A total of 2113 school children out of 2200 completed
the study, 1125 (53%) were males and 988 (46.8%)
were females. Out of the study population 698 (33%)
belong to the age 12 years, 706 (33.4%) belong to the
age 13 years and 709 (33.6%) belong to the age 14
years. About 1293 (61.2%) were Qatari and 820
(38.8%) were Non-Qatari.
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In Qatar, the oral health system is in transitional
development stage, despite the great expansion in the
dental services, dental caries still remain a problem in
the large section of the population.
The study shows that the prevalence of dental caries
among 12-14 years old school children in Qatar 85%.
Indicating that the caries free children is only 15%.
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The mean DMFT value is 4.62 (±3.2), 4.8 (±3.5), and 5.5
(±3.7) for the 12, 13 and 14 years children respectively.
This is indicated that as the age of the children increased
from 12 to 14 years, dental caries increased.
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The DMFT values in Qatar reaches a very serious level, it
falls within a “high” category (DMFT 4.5-6.5) as define
by the WHO (1988), and are greater than the global goal
“recommended level of the WHO of three or less
decayed, missing or filled teeth for the year 2000”.
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Furthermore, female children had a higher mean
DMFT value 5.23 (±3.6) than male children 4.74
(±3.4). This could be due to dietary habits and
frequent snacking of female children during food
preparation. The observation of higher caries risk
among females could be also related to fluctuating
hormonal levels during puberty (Lukacs et al., 2006).
Dental caries in Qatar
6
6
Mean DMFT
5
4.63 4.57
4.59
4.97
5.01
Male
4
Female
3
2
1
0
12
13
14
Age in years
Bar diagram showing mean DMFT among 12-14 year old school children
across male and female.
Dental caries in Qatar
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Moreover, the decay component (DT) was
the major contributor in the DMFT value
in this population. This is in consistent
with the results of other studies conducted
on similar age groups (Al-Sadhan et
al.,2006; Nurelhuda et al., 2009).
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Majority of the children 99.4% consuming sugar
containing snacks (candy, soft drinks, chocolate, jelly,
ice cream, cookies) in-between meals.
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Almost 32.5% of the children only visited their
dentist when they had dental pain.
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Parents are the most popular 69% source of oral
health information for the children followed by
dentists 8.6%, school teacher 5 % and media 3%.
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A large number of children were not aware of the
cariogenic potential of soft drinks 824 (39%).
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Less than half 822 (39%) of the children actually had
heard about fluoride and only 506 (24%) correctly
identified the action of fluoride as preventing tooth
decay.
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Slightly less than half 1022 (48.4%) of the children
couldn’t define the meaning of the plaque and only 761
(36%) could recognized that the dental plaque can lead
to tooth decay.
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In all, 1037 (49.1%) of the children skipping eating
breakfast on daily basis.
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Implementation of community-based preventive oral
health programs on healthy diet and practices of
adequate oral hygiene should be promoted in schools
through integration into the school curriculum and
services to combat the growing problem of dental caries.
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The dental profession has an important role to play in
shaping the future of oral health. The profession
intervention is needed for development of healthy
lifestyles, such as healthy diet low in sugars and
personal hygiene, effective use of fluoride, and
development oral health system that is oriented toward
oral disease prevention and health promotion.
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Awareness on the importance of oral health need to be
enhanced among school children in Qatar. The optimal
way to raise children’s oral health awareness would be
to furnish accurate information to parents and school
teachers. Parents and school teachers should be invited
regularly for presentations on oral and general health.
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The need to reduce sedentary behaviors and to promote
a more active and healthy lifestyle becomes essential.
Clinicians and public health interventionists should
encourage active lifestyles and healthy environments to
balance the energy intake of children.