Introduction: Dental caries is one of the endemic disease conditions still affecting the humans and their oral tissues. The methods applicable for the prevention of caries at global level are still a long way ahead. Aims: To assess the prevalence of dental caries among prepubescent and adolescent school children of Thamar city, Yemen. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the school going children of Thamar city. 120 children, with ages between 6 and 15 years, were selected by the simple random sampling technique. The children were evaluated for dental caries activity using fissure sealants retention rate, sealants’ efficiency being evaluated with scaling criteria. Results and discussion: The retention rate of the 6-11 year-old group of children after 1, 2 months was 100%, 95% after 4 months, 89.8 % after 6 months, 94.11% after 8 months and 88% after 10 months, respectively. The retention rate of the 12-15 year-old group after 1, 2 months was 100%, 94.4% after 4 months, 90% after 6 months, 87.5% after 8 months and 91.54% after 10 months, respectively. Conclusions: Significantly different values were found between the two age groups (6-11, 12-15 years) as to the retention rate and efficiency of sealants.
Keywords:- Dental Caries
- disintegration.
- fissure sealants