Dental caries status and treatment needs among Tibetan refugees residing in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India

Oral health is an integral part of the general health, however, oral health has been given lower priority than other health problems especially among the underprivileged refugee population. Out of total refugees in the world, 70 percent of the refugees belong to Tibet. The purpose of this paper is to assess the dental caries status and treatment needs of Tibetans residing in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India and to explore and suggest better oral health care delivery to them.

Tibetans above the age of 12 years were included in this cross-sectional study. American Dental Association Type-3 examination was conducted. Data regarding demography and oral health practices was recorded on a structured format. For recording dental caries, dentition status and treatment need index was used. The data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software. χ2 test, student t-test, and ANOVA test were used.

A total of 18,831 teeth were examined among which 82 percent were sound, 16.7 percent decayed, 0.7 percent were filled without decay, 0.1 percent filled with decay, 0.03 percent were bridge abutments and 0.15 percent teeth had traumatic injury. The mean DMFT was 7.3 and it was increasing with the age. Mean number of teeth requiring one surface filling, two or more surface filling, pulp therapy, and extraction was 1.27, 0.39, 0.21, and 2.08, respectively.

The study revealed low prevalence of dental caries among Tibetans and dental treatment requirement steadily increased with the advancement of age and was also related to other factors like poverty, education, and their tough life where oral health is given no priority.