DENTAL SURVEY IN NIGERIAPART I. PREVALENCE OF DENTAL CARIES IN NIGERIA

A joint dental epidemiological survey was carried out in 1981 in the ancient city of Ile-Ife and its environs in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The survey was made with the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Oyo State, Nigeria, as the base. The occurrence of caries in 898 Nigerian school children of 509 urban and 389 rural children was compared with the occurrence of caries in the Japanese children. The results showed that the incidence of caries in the Nigerian school children was much lower than that of their Japanese counterpart. However, it is projected that with the increase in the consumption of sweet drinks and food in Nigeria, if superimposed on the existing poor oral hygiene, the incidence of caries will increase greatly

DENTAL SURVEY IN NIGERIA PART 2 BITING FORCE OF NIGERIAN

The biting force of 855 Nigerian children and adults from the age of 3 to 60 was recorded m the Joint Dental Epidemiological Survey in Nigeria in 1981. The biting force of the Nigerian rural group (245 males and 178 females) was significantly greater than those of the Nigerian urban group (227 males and 203 females) and the Japanese males and females

DENTAL SURVEY IN NIGERIA PART: 4. PREVALENCE AND SEVERITY OF PERIODONTAL DISEASES

Six hundred and seventy-three school children from the age of 3 to 20 living in the urban and the rural areas of Nigeria were examined by the Joint Dental Epidemiological Survey in 1986. The survey was funded by the Grant-in Aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and was conducted by both the Japanese survey team and the staff from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The periodontal state of the children was evaluated according to the Community Periodontal Index for Treatment Needs (CPITN) by WHO (1).The prevalence of periodontal diseases was found to be 84.2% within the sample with a high occurrence of gingivitis and heavy deposits of calculus. However, there was little evidence of damage to the periodontal tissues. This can be attributed to the nature of their diet. The results suggested that there would be an increasing need for well-planned and organized public educational programs for the Nigerian children to promote better Oral hygiene coupled with parental involvement in the prevention at home