Prevalence of Dental Plaque among Adults Attending Private Dental College in Chennai City- A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Dental plaque is the community of micro organism found on a tooth surface as a biofilm, embedded in a matrix
of polymers of host and bacterial origins of clinical relevance is that fact that biofilms are less susceptible
to antimicrobial agents, while microbial communities can display enhanced pathogenicity. There are certain
plaque induced oral diseases like chronic gingivitis, gingival enlargement, recurrent gingivitis,periodontitis.
The Dental Plaque index was introduced to determine better oral hygiene by grading the dental plaque
accordingly the present study was designed to assess prevalence of dental plaque among adults visiting
saveetha dental college.Case sheets of all the patients of OP Department of Saveetha Dental College for
the period of two months(Dec 2019- Jan 2020) were reviewed from patient record. Among their reviewed
data, 388 appropriate study samples were selected and tabulated in MS excel.Then the tabulated data were
transferred to statistical software SPSS Version 20.O. Descriptive statistics were expressed by means of
frequency and percentage. Independent t test was used to compare the Mean Plaque index based on Gender
and One way ANOVA was used to compare the Mean Plaque index based on age groups. A statistically
significant difference was observed between the selected age groups which shows that the mean Plaque
Index score was found to be high among participants aged more than 45 years. Even Though there was no
significant difference on comparison of mean Plaque Index score based on Gender, the Plaque was found to
be more prevalent among female participants than males.Within the limits of study, the prevalence of dental
plaque was high among participants aged more than 45 years and females had a higher Mean Plaque Index
score than males.