Background: Dental caries is one of the commonest oral diseases in children. Despite this fact, not much attention has been given to studies on this issue among suburban Nigerian children.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of dental caries, dental attendance and oral health behaviours among the 12-year-old suburban Nigerian children.

Subjects and Methods: Four hundred and two schoolchildren (349 boys, 153 girls) from both private and public schools age 12-year-old participated in the study in 2003. One examiner was calibrated and performed the screening procedures using standard method of WHO diagnostic criteria.

Results: The prevalence of caries was 13.9% and mean DMFT was 0.14. The decayed component accounted for 77.2% of the DMFT while filling and missing teeth accounted for 15.8% and 7% respectively. Over 85% of the children examined were caries free. Seventy seven per cent of the teeth affected by caries were untreated. The probability of having caries experience DMFT> 0 was significantly associated with the type of school and regular sweet consumption p< 0.05. The children who had not visited the dentist had higher caries prevalence than other children. This was statistically significant p< 0.05. Dental attendance was generally poor in both public (90.6%) and private (83.1%) school children.

Conclusion: The findings in this study for the caries prevalence in 12 year-old suburban Nigerian schoolchildren was as low as in developed countries of central Europe and lower than the global standard according to WHO references for the year 2000.