Knowledge about dental caries among ribeirinhos: result of oral health education

• Autor(a) principal: Gasque, Kellen Cristina da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Hatta Júnior, Kleber Tsunematsu, Costa, Pamela Couto Guimarães, Nogueira, Denismar Alves
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Baiana de Saúde Pública (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://rbsp.sesab.ba.gov.br/index.php/rbsp/article/view/3171
• topic: Cárie dentária; Populações ribeirinhas; Percepção de saúde; Escolares; Cavidad dental; Poblaciones ribereñas; Percepción de salud; Niños de escuela; Dental cavity; Riverine populations; Health perception; Schoolchildren

Amazonas is the largest Brazilian state in land area, with a significant portion of its population living near rivers, the so-called ribeirinhos. Since access to health care services by these communities is limited, specific public health actions and projects for health prevention, treatment and education are created. Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and health care teams work on health education projects on these communities. Given this context, this study investigated how parents perceived their children’s oral health and the importance of deciduous dentition care for preventing dental caries. Data was collected by a questionnaire applied to 300 parents or guardians of children aged 0 to 7 years from three municipalities of Amazonas (Parintins, Nhamundá and Barreirinhas – 100 each). Mothers (80%) and homes living with a family income of up to 1 minimum wage (91%) comprised most of the sample. Most parents had knowledge about dental caries (56%) and had received some guidance on how to brush their children’s teeth (41%). All children have a toothbrush and 94% of them use toothpaste. Finally, parents consider themselves the main responsible for supervised brushing (87%), although only 44% of them perform it. In conclusion, these findings attest to the effectiveness of actions and projects carried out in ribeirinho communities regarding dental caries, although continued actions are needed to change habits and positively impact the oral health of ribeirinho children living in Amazonas.