OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to present epidemiological parameters of caries prevalence in children and adolescents in index age groups on a national and regional level in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted during 2004 year for children aged 6 and 12, and during 2007 for adolescents aged 15. An oral health survey was performed on a total number of 1,240 children and adolescents in line with World Health Organization methodology and criteria. Results for caries prevalence and treatment needs were presented and discussed in this paper. RESULTS Mean dmft (decay, missing, filled teeth for primary dentition) for children aged six was 6.7 (SD±3.9) in that the decayed teeth constituted the major part of the index (88.8%), followed by extracted teeth (8.9%) and a small percentage of filled teeth (2.3%). In 12-year-olds DMFT (Decay, Missing, Filled Teeth for permanent dentition) was 4.2 (SD±2.9), Significant Caries index (SiC) was 7.7 (SD±2.9), the decayed teeth constituted the major part of the index (45.4%), followed by 42.1% of FT and 12.5% of extracted teeth. Among 15-year-olds the DMFT was 7.6 (SD±4.1), SiC was 9.2 (SD±1.2), and filled teeth constituted the major part of the index. CONCLUSION The present study provides some evidence of relatively high caries prevalence and severity in comparison with Western European countries. It is necessary to devote more attention to the oral health of children and adolescents. Community based oral health promotion, preventive programs and preventive oriented public dental health care services should be made available and accessible to all children in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the main risk factor for cervical cancers and is associated with close to 36% of oropharyngeal cancers. There is increasing evidence that oral HPV transmission is related to sexual behavior but to our knowledge studies that involve women who have sex with women have not been performed. We examined the prevalence of oral HPV according to sexual behavior among a population-based sample of 118 women and have made some inferences of possible predictors of oral HPV infection. Women were categorized as heterosexual (history of vaginal sex and/or oral sex with males only, n = 75), bisexual (history of vaginal sex and oral sex with females, n = 32) and other (no history of vaginal sex but oral sex with females [homosexuals], virgins and women with incomplete sexual exposure data, n = 11) The prevalence of oral HPV infection was 12/118 (10.2%) for the overall study population and was not significantly different between heterosexual and bisexual women (10.7% (8/75) vs. 12.5% (4/32), p = 0.784). There was no oral HPV detected among homosexual women, virgins or among women where sexual exposure was unknown. Never smokers were more likely to be oral HPV+ compared to former smokers (Adjusted Odds Ratio (Adj OR) = 0.1, 95% CI, 0.0–1.1) and there was no difference in risk between never smokers and current smokers (Adj OR = 0.7, 95% CI, 0.1–4.6). Twenty-five percent (3/12) of oral HPV+ women had a history of HPV and/or genital warts compared to 9% (10/106) of oral HPV-women (p = 0.104). For the women with a history of vaginal sex (n = 110), oral HPV status was statistically significantly different according to oral sex exposure (p = 0.039). A higher proportion of oral HPV-positive women reported that they had no history of oral sex exposure compared to oral HPV-negative women (4/12, 33% vs. 7/98, 8%). The prevalence of cervical HPV infection did not vary between heterosexuals and bisexuals (35.7% (25/70) vs. 35.5% (11/31), p-value 0.411) and for all other women the cervical HPV prevalence was significantly lower (11.1%, 1/9). Our study suggests that smoking and sexual behavior involving males rather than female partners may be possible predictors of oral HPV infection in women. Further studies with larger sample size are needed to confirm these findings.