Polarization of dental caries in Brazilian schoolchildren

Objective: This study aimed to identify caries prevalence and the inequality in disease distribution of schoolchildren in Pederneiras, São Paulo State, Brazil, in 2007.

Methods: The schoolchildren (n=765) ages 7 and 10 years of both genders (m=383; f=382) were examined by four trained dentists, adopting WHO (1997) criteria for oral health surveys. Four public schools were selected including different regions of the city, thus providing a sample that would represent the socio-economic status of the whole population. For data analysis the DMFT, SiC index, Gini Coefficient and percentage of caries-free were determined.

Results: The DMTF index was 0.99, SiC was 2.69, Gini Coefficient was 0.71 and 58.7% of the children were caries-free. The decayed component comprised 49.2% of the DMFT, 47.9% of the missing component and 2.9% of the filled component, indicating limited utilization of dental treatment by children. It was observed that 34.0% of the children had concentrated 84.6% of the disease demonstrating the occurrence of the polarization of the dental caries.

Conclusion: The data obtained demonstrating that the distribution of dental caries has become unequal for schoolchildren that show the phenomenon of polarization of dental caries.