Caries prevalence and some caries related factors for 12 year-old children from Vientiane and Luang Prabang provinces in Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Caries prevalence and some caries related factors for 100 twelve-year-old children from Vientiane and Luang Prabang provinces in Lao People's Democratic Republic were studied. The caries prevalence was high showing a DMFT of 4.6 with 9% of the children being caries free, the D comportment contributed mostly to the DMFT and the Significant Caries Index (Sic Index) was DMFT 8.0. As to the caries related factors, 25% of the children were in the high mutans class, 31% of the group had high or very high Lactobacilli scores and 84-88% studied took local sweet snacks, chips and sweet drinks every day. Taking into consideration the high caries prevalence, the mutans streptococci distribution, the frequent intake of sweets and also the relatively low fluoride concentration in the drinking waters, oral health preventive programmes are indicated to prevent a possible caries epidemic in Laos in the future.