Background

Dental caries is defined as a microbiological disease of the hard structure of teeth, which results in localized demineralization of the inorganic portion and destruction of the organic substances of the tooth. it is the most common dental health problem caused by the interaction of bacteria on tooth enamel, there are many risk factors and associated factors for dental caries such as oral hygiene, eating habits, tobacco, socioeconomic status and etc. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of dental caries and associated factors among adults visiting stomatology national and specialized hospital in Kabul Afghanistan.

Material and Methods

A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted on 13000 patients visited stomatology national and specialized hospital from march 2023 up to march 2024, the data was collected from the patients’ medical records with a data collection form, and the background characteristics of the patients and data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 26.

Results

A total of 13000 patients were evaluated in this study, 7896 patients (60,7%) were female and 5104 patients (39.3%) were male, (male: female ratio of 2:3). Age range was (18 and older), the majority of cases were between 18-35 years (50.5%), about (37,9%) patients aged 36-55 years and 11,6% patients aged 56 and older. (67.3%) patients were urban residents and (32,7%) patients were rural residents.

According to tissue involvement 50% of the patients had profound caries and so on caries media (20%), caries superficial (20%), incipient caries (10%). According to association, poor oral hygiene was the leading associated factor (44.2%) for dental caries (P < 0.05) followed by use of tobacco 21.2%, socioeconomic status (12,2%), low education level (11%) and consumption of sugary food was (11,4%).

Conclusion