Análisis de tendencia y polarización de la caries dental en preescolares: estudio transversal

Objective: to evaluate the tendency and polarization of dental caries in children 4-5 years of age, between 2006 and 2014. Method: this is a comparison of two similar cross-sectional studies that included 226 children each year. Clinical data were collected according to the criteria proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). A previously validated questionnaire was administered to parents or guardians of children, in order to obtain data related to family income. Results: 32.7% of children in 2006 and 35% in 2014 had at least one decayed tooth. The dmft index was 1.25 in 2006 and 1.40 in 2014, with no statistically significant difference (p> 0.05). It was verified that there is a higher concentration of dental caries in populations of lower economic status (p <0.05) for the years of analysis. Conclusion: the caries prevalence showed a tendency to remain constant after eight years of the baseline. Thus, the disease showed polarized, indicating a higher concentration of children whose families had worse socioeconomic conditions.