543ORAL HYGIENE STATUS OF SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN OF JODHPUR CITYBackground: In today’s fast growing world uncountable number of children are suffering from oral diseases due to lack of proper oral health education and oral health care services Objective: To assess the oral hygiene status of school going children of 6 and 12-years in both public and private schools in Jodhpur city. Material & Methods: The study was conducted among 1650 school going children of Jodhpur city. At the first stage, nine areas out of total eighteen areas were selected randomly. In the next stage, from each selected area one private and one public school were identified randomly among them 1650 subjects were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The study subjects were examined for plaque and gingivitis by using Loe and Silness plaque and gingival index. Level of significance was set at p<0.05 and independent sample t test was used to assess the oral hygiene status of private and public school-children. Result: Plaque was seen among (n=1420, 86.06%) with the mean value of 1.22 (±0.24), indicating fair levels of plaque presence among school-children. Statistically significant (p=0.00) relation was seen between age and plaque scores and non-significant results were found (p≥0.33) when gender and plaque score were assessed. The gingivitis was seen among (n=523, 31.69%) with mean value of 0.42 (±0.64), reporting mild gingivitis among the study sample. Statistically significant result was obtained among age, gender and gingival score Conclusion: The present study suggests that more than 50% of the school going children had dental plaque, and more than one third of them had mild gingivitis. The result shows that there is urgent need to start a community based program for oral health education, motivation and promotion for school children.drsoniagupta74@gmail.comResearch712017School children,Oral hygiene status,Dental plaque,GingivitisSonia Gupta,Jitender Solanki,Rushabh J Dagli,Ambika Chaudhary,Rajeev Mahajan,Omprakash YadavFinal Year PG Student, Public Health Dentistry, Vyas Dental College & Hospital, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.,Associate Professor, Public Health Dentistry, Rajasthan Dental College & Hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.,Associate Professor, Public Health Dentistry, Vyas Dental College & Hospital, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.,Senior Lecturer, Public Health Dentistry, Vyas Dental College & Hospital, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India,Senior Lecturer, Public Health Dentistry, Vyas Dental College & Hospital, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.,Senior Lecturer, Public Health Dentistry, Rajasthan Dental College & Hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.