The National Oral Health Survey of Vietnam 1999 was conducted to inform policy development.
Aims: The aims were to describe the oral health status, to analyze its socioeconomic distribution, and to evaluate change over time in the oral health of Vietnamese children.
Methods: A multistaged stratified sampling process was employed. Children aged 6 to 17 years were examined by trained and calibrated dental examiners. A parental questionnaire was used. Drinking water was analyzed.
Results: Preventive oral health behaviors and dental care utilization were infrequent. The decayed, missing, and filled surfaces referring to primary dentition (dmfs) and permanent dentition (DMFS) scores (SD) were 8.9 (11.3) and 2.5 (4.4), respectively. Primary caries experience was associated with fluoride level in drinking water, age, gender, residential status, and geographical location. Permanent caries was also associated with dental visiting and parental education. There was an increase in the prevalence of dental caries in the Vietnamese child population compared with 10 years earlier.
Conclusion: The oral health of Vietnamese children was characterized by high level of dental caries with variation among socioeconomic groups. It suggests the need for a population oral health program that includes measures to target high-need children.