FATORES COMPORTAMENTAIS E SOCIOECONÔMICOS SÃO FORTES PREDITORES DE CÁRIE DENTÁRIA EM PRÉ- ESCOLARES: UM ESTUDO TRANSVERSAL

Abstract

Possible predictors of dental caries in preschool children without previous dental experience, who sought a pediatric dentistry clinic at a public university, were evaluated. Medical records (n=191) were analyzed; 87 were included. Demographic,
socioeconomic data, mother’s history of caries, previous orientation on caries, brushing frequency, use of fluoridated toothpaste, consumption of sweets/cookies and/or sugary liquids, dmft and the presence or absence of enamel development defects were collected. Descriptive and binary logistic regression analyzes were performed to investigate which variables predicted a dmft>0. The multiple model included
consumption of sweets/cookies, socioeconomic data, mother’s history of caries and previous orientation on caries. Of the children (2.69±1.18 years), most (67.8%) had dmft>0 (3.78±3.82), with 50.6% girls and 73.3% from the lower class. Most mothers had completed 12 years of schooling (56.5%), reported history of caries (78.6%) and received previous orientation on caries (52.9%). Most of children brush their teeth at least twice
a day (80.6%), use fluoridated toothpaste (75.9%) and consume sugary liquids (90.8%), in addition to consumption of sweets/cookies (86 .9%) among the meals. Belonging to
the lower class increased the chance of having dmft>0 by 7 times (OR=7,354; 95% CI=1,951-27,723), mother’s history of caries by 4 times (OR=4,131;95% CI=1,042-16,369) and consumption of sweets/cookies by almost twice (OR=1,786;95% CI=1,072-2,976).
Low economic class, mother’s history of caries and consumption of sweets/cookies between meals were factors associated with dmft>0 in the patients without previous dental experience in a pediatric dentistry clinic at a public university.