Dental Caries and Nutritional Status In Chileans with Mixed Dentition Aged 5 To 12 Years. Observational Study

María Cabello-Pasten; Marela Valenzuela-Urrea; Leonardo Epuyao-González & Héctor Fuentes-Barría

Summary

Dental caries is one of the most prevalent diseases in pediatric dentistry. determine the prevalence of dental caries according to nutritional status, social stratum and sex of children between 5 and 12 years of age with mixed dentition. A descriptive retrospective cohort study was carried out, whose sample considered 161 children treated during the year 2021 at the Dental Clinic of the Andrés Bello University. The classification of nutritional status was carried out through the Body Mass Index (BMI) and its Z score (BMIz-score), while the social stratum was extended by the Graffar-Méndez Castellano social stratification method, these variables being related to the prevalence of dental caries obtained from radiographic examination. There are no significant differences between groups for the prevalence of caries according to nutritional status (p = 0.143), social class (p = 0.344) and sex (p = 0.360). Future research is required to consider a better study of the triggering causes of dental caries, since these are factors that are difficult to modify.

KEY WORDS: dental Caries, nutritional status, social class, sex, pediatric dentistry, oral health.

How to cite this article

CABELLO-PASTEN, M.; VALENZUELA-URREA, M.; EPUYAO-GONZÁLEZ, L. & FUENTES-BARRÍA, H. Dental caries and nutritional status in Chileans with mixed dentition aged 5 to 12 years. Observational study. Int. J. Odontostomat., 16(4):591-596, 2022.