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. 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. CONCLUSIONS 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.