Prevalence of damaged and missing teeth among women in the southern plains of Nepal: Findings of a simplified assessment tool

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 12; p. e0225192
• Main Authors: Agrawal, Priyanka, Manohar, Swetha, Thorne-Lyman, Andrew L, Angela, K C, Shrestha, Binod, Klemm, Rolf D, West, Keith P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 03.12.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Agriculture; Biology and Life Sciences; Children & youth; Cross-Sectional Studies; Dental caries; Dental health; Dentifrices; Dentists; Developing countries; Disease prevention; Drugstores; Epidemiology; Female; Food security; Health aspects; Health risk assessment; Health Services Accessibility; Health Surveys; Human nutrition; Humans; International; LDCs; Married women; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Nepal - epidemiology; Nutrition; Nutrition research; Oral cavity; Oral diseases; Oral Hygiene; Pain; Pain management; People and Places; Pharmacy; Physicians; Polls & surveys; Population; Prevalence; Public health; Risk analysis; Risk factors; Rural Population; Teeth; Toiletries industry; Tooth Loss - epidemiology; Womens health; Young Adult; Nepal; New York; United States > US; Maryland; Baltimore Maryland
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225192

To assess the prevalence of missing and damaged teeth among women in the rural southern plains of Nepal using an interviewer-administered tooth assessment module. 21wards in seven Village Development Committees across the Tarai of Nepal in 2015. Resident, married women of children less than 5 years of age or those married in the 2 years prior to the survey, 14 to 49 years of age participating in a mid-year nutrition and health survey in the Tarai region of Nepal. Prevalence of missing and damaged teeth, history of dental problems, oral hygiene practices, access to dental treatment and risk factors for missing and damaged teeth. Of 3007 assessed women, aged 14 to 49 years of age, 22.8% (95% CI: 21.4-24.4) reported ≥ 1 missing or damaged teeth; 81.5% (95% CI 80.1-82.9) reported regularly practicing oral hygiene, typically with standard local dentifrices. Pain or discomfort in the oral cavity in the previous 6 months affected 17.6% of women. Among these, 43.8% had sought treatment from a dental facility, pharmacy or village doctor. Home remedies were commonly applied to relieve pain. Broken and missing teeth are common, affecting nearly one-quarter of adult women of reproductive age in rural Southern Nepal, as assessed by an interviewer-administered questionnaire.