[Oral health assessment of Hungarian adult population based on epidemiologic examination]

A representative national survey by the dentists of the Department of Prosthodontics, Semmelweis University was performed to assess oral health conditions of Hungarian adult population before joining the European Union. The aim of this study was to evaluate periodontal conditions of the population from data collected in the survey and to investigate the associations between gender, age and demographic regions and the prevalence of periodontal problems. The 2 years long nationwide investigation followed the WHO criteria (World Health Organization, 1997) and assessed 4606 person throughout all regions of the country. Periodontal conditions and treatment needs of 4153 person were assessed in intraoral examinations by Community Periodontal Index (CPI) method. Age, gender, demographic regions were recorded on questionnaires. According to our findings CPI 2 was the most frequent finding in all age groups which primarily reflected poor oral hygiene. When we consider gender differences, CPI 3 and CPI 4 were more frequent among males while women had CPI 0 and CPI 2 with higher frequency. Our findings reflect regional differences of periodontal health conditions as 16% of the population of the capitol and its surroundings had healthy periodontal condition however we could find CPI 0 only in 5-8% of Middle and South-Danubium population. Findings of our epidemiologic survey call attention on poor oral hygene of the population. There is a need in Hungary for better oral health education of the population, more preventive programs and action plans to promote regular dental office attendance.