Title

Oral health and treatment needs across tribal and non-tribal groups: A tertiary care cross-sectional study

Authors

Sonal Saigal^1,*, Saurabh Prasad² & V.P.K. Vedha³

Affiliation

¹Department of Oral Pathology, Microbiology and Forensic Odontology, Dental Institute, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, Jharkhand, India; ²Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Career Post graduate Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Lucknow, India; ³Department of Public Health Dentistry, Dental Institute, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, Jharkhand, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Sonal Saigal - E-mail: drsaigalop@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9723273639
Saurabh Prasad - E-mail: saurabhprasadd@gmail.com
V.P.K. Vedha - E-mail: vedhavpk6@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received August 1, 2026; Revised August 31, 2026; Accepted August 31, 2026, Published August 31, 2026

Abstract

Comparative oral health data for tribal and non-tribal populations in India remain limited, particularly regarding whether disparities reflect disease burden or healthcare access. This cross-sectional study assessed 343 participants (169 non-tribal, 174 tribal) at a tertiary care institution using WHO Basic Oral Health Survey (2013) criteria across three age strata. Overall caries experience differed statistically between the groups, although the absolute difference in mean affected surfaces was small (3.54 versus 3.52) Periodontal pocket (4–5 mm and ≥6 mm) and 4–5 mm attachment loss were significantly greater among tribal participants (p≤0.001 and p≤0.005). Prompt treatment, predominantly scaling, was required by a substantial proportion of participants in both groups (78.7% tribal versus 68.6% non-tribal). However, 55.7% of tribal participants had never accessed professional dental care, compared with 32.5% of non-tribal participants (p=0.027). Thus, data shows that disparities in dental service utilization may contribute substantially to oral health inequities between tribal and non-tribal populations, alongside differences in periodontal disease burden, underscoring the need for access-focused, community-based interventions.

Keywords

Oral health, tribal population, world health organization (WHO)

Citation

Saigal et al. Bioinformation 22(8): 5062-5068 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.