SUMMARY

The objective of this study is to investigate the incidence of gingivitis and periodontitis among schoolchildren of 6- 14 years old in Kaunas City. The state of oral hygiene and incidence of periodontitis was evaluated among 89 school-children between 6-8 years old, 86 schoolchildren between 9-11 years old and 75 schoolchildren between 12-14 years old. After investigating and evaluating the degree of severity of gingivitis among the schoolchil-dren, it was stated that benign (light) gingivitis constitutes periodontal lesions among more than half (59,6%) of the schoolchildren, at the age of 6-8 years old, 34,9 % at the age of 9-10 years old, and 46,7 % at the age of 12-14 years old. Medium degree of severity of gingivitis was diagnosed only to a very small number of all examined (9,2%). Evaluating the connection between the incidence of gingivitis and the state of oral hygiene, benign gingivitis was diagnosed to almost half (47,1%) of the examined and gingivitis of me-dium severity was diagnosed to 44,1 % of the examined. However, no periodontal lesion was diagnosed for the majority of schoolchildren with efficient oral hygiene (98,2%). Trying to improve the health of the oral cavity among schoolchildren, it is necessary to form efficient habits of oral hygiene, combining the efforts of dentists, oral hygienists, teachers, par-ents and schoolchildren themselves