Caries experience in nursery school children with and without dental assistance

• Autor(a) principal: Freire, Maria do Carmo Matias
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Soares, Fabíola Fernandes, Higino, Maria Abadia Salge Prata, Nunes, Maria de Fátima, Soares, Érika Fernandes, Nunes, Fabiany Cristina Santos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista odonto ciência (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/fo/article/view/3947
• topic: Dental caries; dental care; child rearing; nursery schools; child; preschool; Epidemiology of dental caries

Purpose: To compare the caries experience of children attending public nursery schools with or without an oral health programme. Methods: Secondary data from an epidemiological survey carried out in Goiânia, GO, Brazil, in 2001 was used. The sample consisted of 3 to 6 year-old children attending local state nursery schools with the oral health programme (Group 1, n=275) and those attending nursery schools without this benefit (Group 2, n=261). The oral health programme included clinic, preventive, and educative procedures, with focus on dental treatment, which was carried out by a dental team in a mobile unit every year. Results: There was no difference in caries prevalence and dmf-s between the two groups. Regarding dmf-s components, only filled surfaces showed statistical significance with higher levels for Group 1 (P=0.040). Multiple logistic regression analysis, after adjusting for the sociodemographic variables, showed that Group 2 had lower chance to have children with filled teeth than Group 1 (OR=0.48, P=0.025). Conclusion: The access to dental care for children in Group 1 partially reduced their treatment needs through an increase of the filled component. However, it did not significantly impact caries prevalence and other dmf-s components. Key words: Dental caries; dental care; child rearing; nursery schools; child, preschool