This study had twin objective first to determine the prevalence of dental caries and second to assess the correlation of duration of imprisonment, adverse habits and duration of adverse habits with dental caries status of prisoners in Central Jail, Jodhpur city, Rajasthan.

This cross-sectional study was carried out on 131 male prisoners of Central Jail, Jodhpur city. A pre-designed questionnaire on general information, Tobacco consumption (frequency and duration of intake of Tobacco) and duration of imprisonment was used for the collection of data. The dental caries status was recorded using DMFT index (Henry T Klein, Knutson JW and Carole D Palmer; 1938).

The total DMFT score was 180 and the average DMFT was 1.37 for the total prison population. A significant association was found between adverse habits and different age groups (χ² = 16.77, p = 0.033) and between duration of adverse habits and different age groups of prisoners (χ² = 16.58, p -value = 0.034). Significant correlation was found between adverse habit and duration of adverse habit (p < 0.05) in subjects having dental caries.

Though the prevalence of dental caries was so high, treatment for the same was not available due to lack of a dental unit in the jail. This highlights the urgent need of dental services in Central jail of Jodhpur city.

Hans R, Thomas S, Dagli RJ, Solanki J, Arora G. Prevalence of Dental Caries among Prisoners of Central Jail, Jodhpur City, Rajasthan, India. World J Dent 2014;5(2):92-97.