Abstract

ZAMBONI, Giovana Leão Paleari; LIMA, Ramonike Lopes; DUARTE, Danilo Antônio  and  SANT´ANNA, Giselle Rodrigues de. Perceptions, knowledge and representations of oral health among adolescents in public and private schools in the city of Atibaia-SP. RFO UPF [online]. 2015, vol.20, n.2, pp. 179-186. ISSN 1413-4012.

Studies on self-perceived oral health in adolescence are rare, reinforcing the myth that, generally, there are few health problems in this period of life. Objective: To learn the socioeconomic and oral diseases profile of adolescents, as well as their impact on daily life and etiological factors involved. Subjects and method: Adolescents (n=183) from public (PUS) and private (PRS) elementary schools of Atibaia, SP, Brazil were analyzed and surveyed. Statistics were performed by frequency, Fisher's exact test, and Kruskal-Wallis test, with 95% CI. Results: 48.6% of the sample are PRS students, 54.6% are female, 77% are 12-15 years old, and 33% are 16- 18 years old. There was no difference in daily intake of carbohydrate between PRS and PUS, but there was difference regarding the knowledge on the relation of such intake with dental caries; PRS students presented higher correlation (P<0.0001) and PUS students know less about prevention (p<0.0001). There were differences between PUS and PRS regarding the correlation among periodontal disease (PD), prevention, and signs and symptoms. The lack of association between spontaneous bleeding and bleeding when brushing, and bad breath and PD was higher for PRS although the frequency of knowledge on prevention was higher. The income of PRS students fit in the category of 4-6 and 6+ wages, whereas for PUS students is 1-3 and 4-6 wages. Conclusion: Lower-income adolescents showed less knowledge regarding etiology of diseases, prevention, and oral health maintenance, and girls were more concerned and had more information, expressing stronger self-awareness on oral health.

Keywords : Adolescent.; Oral health.; Health education..