OBJECTIVETo examine the oral health status among the orphan children and adolescents of Chongqing and assist in planning of the oral health programs.

METHODSAccording to the third national oral health investigation of epidemiology, the dental caries, gingival bleeding and calculus was examined among 317 orphan living in Chongqing, by cluster sampling. The statistical software SPSS 17.0 was used for the data analysis.

RESULTSIn primary and permanent teeth, the prevalence of dental caries and mean DMFT (dmft) were found to be 50.00%, 1.94 +/- 2.81 and 39.53%, 0.90 +/- 1.38. There were no significant difference between female and male (P>0.05). But there was significant difference of the prevalence of permanent tooth caries between the age group under 12 (include 12) and above 12 (P < 0.05). It was also found that 35.25% of the orphan children and adolescents had caries in the first permanent molar, and there was significant difference between female and male (P < 0.05). Neither of the caries teeth above was treated nor the healthy teeth were sealed. The prevalence rate of gingival bleeding was 78.22%, and the calculus rate was 67.66%.

CONCLUSIONThe oral status of the orphan is poor, and this community has experienced a low utilization of preventive or therapeutic oral health services. In the future work, orphans should be considered as a priority group when make plans for oral health care.