Prevalencia de caries y conocimientos sobre salud-enfermedad bucal de niños (3 a 12 años) en el Estado de México

Resumen

The purpose of this study was to assess the decay prevalence as well as oral health-disease knowledge in kindergarten and elementary schools. A secondary goal was to get a base line from the new students and to follow-up them. We examined a total of 634 students: two kindergarten and four elementary schools, all of them located in Toluca and Metepec, in the State of Mexico. The age of the students ranged from 3 to 12 years old. The WHO dental caries criteria was used to evaluate the information. The information was evaluated through surveys which were designed considering the following criteria: school grade level and according to the children’s psychopedagogical characteristics. The results proved that 74% of the subjects showed dental caries, general dmfs 7.5 and DMFS 0.6. The component decay represented of 4.7 surfaces an average in primary dentition and 0.5 in the permanent. The significance more frequently decayed and filled surface was the oclusal. There was no significant statistic found between either gender when the lineal multivariate analysis was applied. 58% of the kindergarten and elementary students showed a good level of dental knowledge. It was found that the population requires the application of additional preventative measures and restorative programs.