Impact of imprisonment on oral health including dentition and periodontal status: A cross-sectional survey

Aim of this cross sectional survey was to evaluate the dentition and periodontal status of the prison inmates. Material and method WHO format of 1997 was used to extract data for the dentition status and periodontal status using WHO criteria of oral health survey. Results A total of 1274 inmates was included in the study from two prisons of Ambala district. Highest score of 2 for CPI was found among 64.8% of subjects indicating poor periodontal health required immediate attention. Tobacco related habits were also found to be common among prisoners as it was found in 59.9% of the subjects. Dentition status showed the number of sound teeth per person was 26.38 while number of decayed teeth per person was 2.32. Mean number of Teeth filled with and without decay were 0.07 and 0.13 in number, respectively. Mean number of teeth missing due to caries was 0.83 while teeth missing due to other reasons were 1.38. Conclusion Access to oral health care is important to every individual to maintain oral health and this factor implies on prisoner community. Simpler way of preventing disease is to increase awareness among prisoners community about oral health.