OBJECTIVETo study the dental caries status in the primary dentition of 5-year-old children and analyze the difference of oral health behavior of family between urban and rural in Liaoning province.

METHODSThe representative samples were selected by multi-stage, stratified and random sampling from Liaoning province. Dental caries of 792 children at five years were recorded according to World Health Organization criteria. The questionnaries were finished by 396 parents of the children and analyzed the oral health behavior of family in urban and rural by chi-squre test.

RESULTSThe prevalence and dmft of dental caries of 5-year-old children in Liaoning province was 73.86% and 4.38, respectively. The prevalence of dental caries in 5-year-old children was 64.14% in urban and 83.59% in rural. There was significant difference on the consumption of sweets, chocolate, water with sugar and beverage between the children in urban and rural. More urban children had good toothbrushing behavior such as the time of beginning brush tooth, the frequency of brushing and daily use of fluoridated toothpaste compared with the rural children. The parents in urban had high level of education and incomes and there were more children in urban have regular dental visit pattern than in rural.

CONCLUSIONThis study has shown that there is an urgent need for the implementation of a systematic education on oral health behavior of family on rural children in Liaoning province.