Objectives: To assess the oral health status of the bhil tribe population of Southern Rajasthan and to analyze the influence of ethnicity and other demographic variables on the oral health status.Methods: study design comprises of a cross sectional study of bhil tribe adults chosen by multi stage stratified random sampling procedure. The total sample size accounted to 1590 male tribal dentate subjects aged 15 to 54 years. Clinical recordings for Oral hygiene status using OHI – S, Caries status by DMFT and DMFS along with treatment needs and periodontal status by CPI was done. Chi square was executed for discrete and one way ANOVA for continuous data. Multivariate analyses were carried out to test the influence of age, frequency of cleaning teeth, material used for cleaning teeth and dental visiting habits on caries and periodontal status. Results: Debris, calculus and oral hygiene index scores increased with age. The mean DMFT and DMFS scores for all the age groups were 5.34±6.48 and 18.94 ± 35.87 respectively. Extraction was the most required treatment (1.74 ± 3.66) followed by one surface filling (1.34 ± 1.65). Shallow periodontal pockets were more prevalent (40%) among the 35 – 44 years age group whereas deep pockets were rampant (11.6%) in the oldest age group. More than half the sextants (3.15) were excluded amongst the oldest study population. All the independent variables namely age, frequency of cleaning teeth, substance used for cleaning teeth and visiting habits were statistically significantly related to caries and periodontal status.

Conclusions: Study population was predominated by high prevalence of periodontal disease, poor oral hygiene; unmet treatment needs. prevalence of dental caries was lower and periodontal disease was greater in comparison to the general population suggesting the influence of ethnicity on oral health.

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