Jakarta, Sept. 11 -- More than half of Indonesian students in a government free health program suffer from dental caries, with tens of thousands having multiple cavities, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

About 52.67 percent of the 180,000 students checked under the Free Health Checkup (CKG) program were found to have dental caries, with 43,000 of them having cavities in three or more teeth, the ministry's Director for Non-communicable Disease Siti Nadia Tarmizi said.

"Dental caries consistently ranks second or third among health problems we detect," Tarmizi told a briefing ahead of National Dental Health Day.

The trend was also seen in adults, with 45.75 percent of those checked found to have caries, followed by missing teeth, loo...