Resumo

ANDRADE, Márcia Rejane Thomas Canabarro; CANABARRO, Antonio  e  MOLITERNO, Luiz Flavio. Experience of dental caries in mother/child pairs: association between risk indicators and dental caries. RGO, Rev. gaúch. odontol. (Online) [online]. 2012, vol.60, n.2, pp. 179-185. ISSN 1981-8637.

Objective To verify the relationship between the experience of caries in mothers and their children and to identify associations between the child's experience of caries and the socio-demographic and behavioral factors of the families. Methods 73 mother/child pairs were examined by one calibrated examiner (Kappa = 0.87) using dmft and DMFT (deciduous and permanent dentition, respectively). To collect socio-demographic and behavioral data, a tested questionnaire was used (Kappa = 0.91). The following statistical tests were used: Kappa agreement analysis of the data collection instruments, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests to compare mean indices, Spearman Correlation to assess the correlation between ordinal variables and Chi-square to assess the association between independent variables and the outcome. Significance level was set at 5%. Results 100% of mothers and 75.3% of children had at least one tooth with experience of dental caries. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean dmft in relation to age (p <0.01). Among the variables studied, a positive correlation was found between the number of missing teeth of the mother and dmft (p <0.05) in children under eight year-old, and an association between the lack of brushing before bedtime and the outcome for children. Conclusion the experience of dental caries in mothers was replicated in their children. Specific programs aimed at changing family behavior and encouraging the consumption of healthy diets may be necessary to control dental caries, especially in children of pre-school age.

Palavras-chave : Cross-sectional studies.; Dental caries.; Epidemiology.; Mother-child relations.; Risk index..