Introduction: Dental caries, an infectious microbiologic disease of dental hard tissues is a global public health problem. It affects people of all ages with the highest priority risk group being school-going children. Objective: This study was done to assess the prevalence of dental caries in the 3-14 years old school children of Chitwan and to compare it across genders, age groups and school groups. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted from January 2018 to May 2018 where WHO criteria was used to examine and calculate DMFT and dft (decayed filled teeth) indices among 360 school children. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS 20. Statistical significance was determined using independent t-test and ANOVA test. Results: The prevalence of the dental caries was found to be 85.83% with mean DMFT of 3.01 ± 2.24 among school children of Chitwan. Caries prevalence was higher in females compared to males, and in government schools compared to private school. Caries experience was highest in middle childhood group 7-12 years (89.20%, mean “DMFT+dft” 3.56 ± 2.33) followed by late childhood group of 13-14 years (84.72%, mean DMFT 2.68 ± 1.95) and early childhood group of 3-6 years (77.33%, mean dft 1.76 ± 1.60) and the differences were statistically significant. The difference in caries experience between private and government school groups as well as in male and female children was not statistically significant. 82.7% of the children had untreated caries while only 5.83% had filled teeth in their mouth. Conclusions: The prevalence of dental caries was higher in middle childhood group and higher percentage of untreated decays, calls for the need of immediate preventive as well as curative interventions.

Introduction: Glass ionomer cement (GIC) is frequently used as a restorative material in dentistry and has been known for its anti-carious property, biocompatibility and good marginal adaptation. The study aims to evaluate the survival of GIC restorations on primary molar teeth of dental patients attending College of Medical Sciences, Chitwan. Methods: A retrospective longitudinal study was conducted among the patients who were treated with, at least one GIC restoration (GC Fuji II/GC Fuji IX GP) in their primary molars during the past three years. Data were collected to assess the demographic variables like gender, economic status and mother’s education; restoration-related variables like no of surfaces involved, type of material used, location of the restoration in oral cavity, and age of restoration and; outcome related variable i.e. survival of restoration (survived / failed). United States Public Health Service (USPHS) criteria was used to determine survival. Data analysis was done using software SPSS version 17. Chi-square tests were carried out to find out the association between dependent and independent variables. Significance level was set at p<0.05. Results: The 1-3 years cumulative survival rate of the GIC restoration in primary molars was found to be 74.5%. The survival rates for 1 year, 2 years and 3 years were found to be 93.5%, 78.6% and 62.5% respectively. There was no significant association between the survival of the restoration and location of the tooth in oral cavity and sociodemographic indicators like gender, age, economic status and mother’s education. However, statistically significant association was found between survival of restoration and type of restorative material, number of surfaces involved and age of restoration. Type VIII GIC had a higher survival rate (85.7%) compared to Type II GIC (68.2%), and single-surface restorations had a higher survival rate (84.9%) compared to two-surface restorations (52.3%). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that GIC can be used for restoring primary molars, particularly as single-surface restorative material. It also suggests that Type VIII GIC can more effective in restoring the primary molars as compared to the conventional Type II GIC.