Caries prevalence in 12-year-old schoolchildren in Senegal in 1989 and 1994

Senegal, in middlewest Africa, has an estimated area of 197,000 km2 with a population of about 8.3 million of whom 45 per cent are less than 14-years of age. Apart from densely populated areas around the capital, Dakar, and other large towns, the population is scattered sparsely in rural areas. In the absence of any recent and representative oral health data, two cross-sectional studies on caries prevalence were conducted in 1989 and 1994 respectively to assess and compare the caries status among 12-year-old schoolchildren living in the urban and rural areas of Senegal. The results of the study are presented in this paper.