Table 2.

Dietary habits and oral practices among participating children and associated caries prevalence

	Rural (N=93)		Urban (N=79)
Dietary habits	n	% with caries	n	% with caries
Consumption of sweets
Everyday	0	0	13	53.8**
Several times a week	6	33.3	48	66.6**
Occasionally but not that often	87	41.4	18	50.0
Consumption of chocolates
Everyday	0	0	2	50.0**
Several times a week	2	0	22	68.2**
Occasionally but not that often	91	41.8	55	58.2
Consumption of soda drinks
Everyday	3	33.3	14	78.6**
Several times a week	14	42.8	44	58.8**
Occasionally but not that often	76	40.7	21	52.3
Oral health practices
Frequency of tooth brushing
Once/day	40	40.0	31	64.5**
Twice /day	18	38.9	41	56.1**
After every major meal	29	34.5	7	57.1**
Less often than daily	6	83.3	0	0
Tooth cleaning aids
Toothbrush and toothpaste	25	24.0	53	50.9**
Toothbrush only	33	39.4	26	76.9**
‡Chewing stick	29	48.3	0	0
none	6	83.3	0	0
Consulted a dentist at least once	3	66.6	20	70.0

^‡Piece of stick from a tree that is flayed out at the end for brushing teeth.

^**Significantly higher than corresponding rural group, P<0.05.