Background: The Halba tribe owes its nomenclature term "Hal" which locally means plowing or farming. Bastariya Halba is Dravidian tribe from Warangal. They speak Indo-European language Halbi. There are no population-based studies till date evaluating the oral health status among Halba children in Chhattisgarh.
Aim: To evaluate the oral health status of Halba tribe children in the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh by assessing the prevalence of dental caries and periodontal conditions.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the dental caries and periodontal status in Halba tribe children. Children aged between 6 and 12 years (N = 1,050) were randomly selected from Halba community of Chhattisgarh. Dental caries status was recorded by using the decayed missing filled teeth (DMFT/dmft) index and papillary marginal attached (PMA) index for periodontal status.
Statistical analysis: The statistical software namely Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 was used for the analysis of the data.
Results: The study population was 1,050 children from the Halba tribal community. Among the subjects, 545 (51.9%) were boys and 505 (48.1%) were girls. The overall mean dmft/DMFT was found to be 2.25 ± 2.71. In this study, boys had significantly higher values for overall dmft/DMFT (2.55 ± 2.74) than girls. It was observed that mild, moderate, and severe gingivitis significantly increased with increasing age.
Conclusion: The population examined was characterized by high prevalence of dental caries as well as unmet treatment needs. Factors like poverty, illiteracy, poor awareness, and lack of oral health services may be a reason for poor oral health in these children.
How to cite this article: Pathivada L, Prabhat SK, Garg N, et al. Evaluation of Oral Health Status among Children of Halba Tribe in Bastar Division of Chhattisgarh, India. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2024;17(10):1121-1123.
Keywords: Dental caries; Halba tribe; Oral health.
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