Abstract
Dental caries is still the most prevalent oral disease of school-aged children on a global basis. The present study aims to assess the dental caries experience among schoolchildren in the Municipality of Tripoli center, Libya. A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on 320 schoolchildren (132 girls, and 188 boys), aged between 6-14 years, between October and December 2018. The experience of dental caries was assessed using World Health Organization criteria (WHO) 2013 criteria: dmft & DMFT indices. Data was analyzed using SPSS Statistics Version 26. Dental caries prevalence in permanent teeth, among schoolchildren in Tripoli center, was 56%, while the prevalence of dental caries in primary teeth was higher than in permanent teeth, with mean dmft and DMFT scores of 3.11 and 1.89, respectively. Statistically significant differences were found between girls and boys, where more girls showed a higher D score than boys, with a mean DMFT score of 1.65 and dmft score of 2.96 in boys, and a mean DMFT score of 2.23 and dmft score of 3.30 in girls. The prevalence of dental caries was high amongst schoolchildren and indicated the requirement of urgent comprehensive oral health, educational and dental service programs, targeting schoolchildren population at the early stage of caries development.