Association between oral health habits and dental caries among children in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

AIM: To evaluate the self-reported oral health habits and their association with the occurrence of dental caries among children in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), after 6 years of activities under the auspices of the Children's Oral Health Promotion Programme (COHPP). METHODS: The data were collected in September 2013 in two of the most central districts of Pyongyang City, DPRK. The sample consisted of 492 children aged 10 and 13 years who had participated in the COHPP for 6 years. The children filled in a self-completed, structured questionnaire on oral health habits and were examined clinically by a dentist. The differences in mean (SD) number of decayed primary (dt) and permanent teeth (DT) and their sum (dt + DT) subdivided according to genders, age groups, districts and self-reported oral health habits were evaluated using Mann-Whitney U-test. The associations between self-reported oral health habits and the occurrence of dental caries were evaluated with chi-square test and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: The school-aged children commonly reported healthy oral hygiene habits but sweet snacks were commonly used. The occurrence of dental caries associated statistically significantly with the frequency of sweet snacking (p=0.011) but not with the frequency of tooth brushing (p=0.725) or the use of water for thirst instead of sugary beverages (p=0.189). CONCLUSION: A more effective promotion of healthy dietary habits with innovative approaches and close collaboration with different social actors will be needed in future.

Comparison of two preventive interventions on dental caries among children in Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

OBJECTIVES: The aim was to compare the change in dental caries status in two different intervention groups of the Children's Oral Health Promotion Programme (COHPP). METHODS: A longitudinal study among 500 children who had participated into the COHPP for 6 years was conducted in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Children in Group I received intensified school-based intervention and were clinically examined at the age of 7 years in 2007 (n = 250), 10 years in 2010 (n = 250) and 13 years in 2013 (n = 242). Children in Group II (n = 250) joined the programme at the age of 4 years in kindergarten in 2007, were provided with early preschool-based intervention and were clinically examined at the age of 7 years in 2010 and 10 years in 2013. RESULTS: Both the prevalence and the mean number of dt + DT decreased significantly in both groups during the follow-up. This was due to decrease in the number of dt, whereas the number of DT remained relatively constant. Poisson regression showed that the association between the group status and the change in the number of dt + DT was statistically significant when adjusted for gender but disappeared when the school was included in the analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The decrease in dental caries may be partly due to the exfoliation of deciduous teeth and dental treatment received. However, the study gave some reference emphasizing the early starting of the prevention.

Craniofacial skeleton of 7-year-old children with enlarged adenoids.

In a radiocephalometric study of 7-year-old children, it was found that a diagnostically useful characteristic associated with the presence or past history of enlarged adenoids is a dorsal rotation of the mandibular ramus relative to the palate. This feature may also be common to other obstructions of the nasopharyngeal space. A possible mechanism causing this growth deviation and some methodological problems involved in its detection are discussed.