ORIGINAL ARTICLE

 

Trends in dental caries in 12- and 13-year-old schoolchildren from Florianópolis between 1971 and 2009

 

 

Helena Mendes Constante^I; João Luiz Bastos^II; Marco Aurélio Peres^II

^IUndergraduate dental student, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil
^IIDDS, MSc, PhD, Professor, Department of Public Health, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil

Correspondence to

 

 

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ABSTRACT

AIM: To estimate the prevalence and severity of dental caries in schoolchildren from the city of Florianópolis, SC, Brazul, in 2009 and to compare these results with data from previous studies carried out in the same institution since 1971.
METHODS: All 145 12- and 13-year-old schoolchildren enrolled in a public school were eligible for the study. Dental caries was assessed with the DMFS/DMFT indexes, the significant caries index (SiC) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI 95%).
RESULTS: The response rate was 68.2%. The DMFT ranged from 9.2 in 1971 to 0.78 in 2009, although different diagnostic criteria were adopted to estimate these counts. The prevalence of dental caries declined from 98.0% (CI 95% 96.0-100.0) in 1971 to 43.5% (CI 95% 33.7-53.4) in 2009. There was a reduction of 47% in the mean SiC index between 2002 and 2009, i.e. from 3.4 (CI 95% 3.0-3.8) to 1.8 (CI 95% 1.5-2.1). The mean DMFS index was 2.0, and it was composed of an average of 1.8 and 0.2 decayed and filled surfaces, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: Even though different diagnostic criteria were adopted during the study period, an effective decline in the prevalence and severity of dental caries in adolescents was observed throughout 38 years of monitoring.

Keywords: dental caries, DMF index, oral health, trends.

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Acknowledgments

Helena Mendes Constante was supported by a scholarship granted from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) of Brazil from November 2008 to July 2009 (number 126249/2008 3).

 

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Correspondence to:
Marco Aurélio Peres
Departamento de Saúde Pública, Centro de Ciências da Saúde
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Campus Universitário Trindade - 88010-970 Florianópolis - SC
Phone: +55-48-37219046
Fax: +55-48-37219542
E-mail: mperes@ccs.ufsc.br

Received for publication: May 19, 2010
Accepted: August 24, 2010