Prevalência de cárie precoce e fatores associados em pré-escolares de uma creche pública do município de Rochedo de Minas, Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Dental caries is a public health problem of multifactorial etiology, with high prevalence in children. Early caries can negatively affect quality of life, as it presents with rapid wear of the tooth structure and the presence of painful symptoms. This can result in early loss, malocclusion, impairing chewing, permanent teething, sleep, school performance, favoring malnutrition and affecting the child's development. Caries is, however, a preventable disease once the factors that lead to its development become known. OBJECTIVE. To evaluate the prevalence of caries in the preschool children from a public nursery in Minas Gerais and the association with behavioral risk factors and socioeconomic factors. METHODS. Observational cross-sectional study, which included a clinical examination to assess the child's oral health conditions, using the CPO-D index, in addition to a questionnaire for guardians to collect data on socioeconomic conditions. Data were submitted to Pearson's chisquare or Fisher's exact tests. The significance level adopted was 5%. RESULTS. Forty children aged between 3 and 5 years were examined. The prevalence of caries was 52.5%, the CPO-D index showed a mean value of 1.225. There was no clinically significant association between caries and the factors: type of breastfeeding, diet, hygiene, access to health services and use of fluoride, education level of the guardian. CONCLUSION. The prevalence of caries in preschoolers is significant and indicates the need to intensify preventive and curative care for these children.