highly significantP<0.001
Caries status of each child was recorded using ‘def’ index as described by Gruebbel in 1944. The decayed teeth (92.6%) constituted the major component of deft, with missing teeth contributing to only 5.7% and filled teeth to only 1.7 % of deft ( Figure 1 ). As shown in Table 1 , the mean deft increased with age and differences in mean deft between different age groups were found to be highly significant statistically (P<0.001).