Oral Hygiene and Periodontal Status of 12 and 15-Year-Old Greek Adolescents. A National Pathfinder Survey (Report‪)‬

Introduction The prevalence and severity of oral diseases are influenced by a number of different variables, such as the implementation of preventive programs, patients' oral health education and behaviour, patients' and dentists' attitudes toward oral health, as well as the availability, accessibility and quality of dental care. Some of these variables may change over time and therefore the oral health of a population may also change. For this reason the World Health Organization suggests the surveillance of oral diseases that can be accomplished by regular clinical oral health surveys. These should be conducted every 5-6 years, by well calibrated examiners, in the same communities or settings in each country, and in certain indicator ages and age groups, using standard criteria for recording clinical conditions [Petersen et al., 2005].