Dental pain, socioeconomic status, and dental caries in young male adults from southern Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Bastos,João Luiz Dornelles
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Nomura,Lincon Hideo, Peres,Marco Aurélio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Cadernos de Saúde Pública
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-311X2005000500014
• topic: Toothache; Social Class; Risk Factors

The aim of this study was to assess dental pain prevalence and its association with dental caries and socioeconomic status in 18-year-old males from Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a random sample (n = 414) selected from the Brazilian Army conscription list in 2003. Dental pain during the 12 months prior to the interview was recorded as the outcome. Socioeconomic data were obtained through a questionnaire. Dental caries experience was registered according to the DMFT Index. Analyses included simple and multiple non-conditional logistic regression following a hierarchical approach. Response rate was 95.6%. High rates of inter-examiner agreement were achieved (kappa > 0.83). Dental pain prevalence was 21.2% (95%CI: 17.3-25.1). After adjustment, individuals with one or more untreated caries were 3.2 times more likely (95%CI: 1.7-5.8) to have dental pain compared to caries-free subjects. Conscripts with low family income were 1.8 times more likely (95%CI: 1.0-3.3) to have dental pain than those with higher income.