2011, Number 2
A comparative study of dental caries in five classes of students at the Faculty of Higher Studies (known by its Spanish acronym, FES) Iztacala
Jiménez FJ, Esquivel HRI
Full text
Language: Spanish
References: 9
Page: 67-72
PDF size: 154. Kb.
ABSTRACT
Introduction. Dental caries has been identified by the WHO as the most common oral disease worldwide. Universal patterns of caries exist in terms of prevalence, incidence, frequency distribution and rates of progression in permanent teeth, patters which can be regarded as rules of thumb to be applied in planning dental care. The National Caries Survey carried out between 1997 and 2001 reported the fall in the DMFT index in a number of states around the country.Objective. To compare the changes in DMFT indexes among five classes of students at FES Iztacala.
Material and Method. A non-experimental, cross-sectional comparative study was carried out of five classes of students who started the Bachelor’s Degree in Dental Surgery at the Faculty of Higher Studies (FES) Iztacala between 2006 and 2010. Examinations of the oral cavity were performed in accordance with the diagnostic criteria of the WHO and by examiners who had been previously standardized.
Results. The group consisted of 2,982 individuals, of whom two thirds were women. The average age was 19±3 years old. The DMFT index of the group was 9.88±5.33 with prevalence of caries of 94.5%. It was determined that there are significant differences (p‹0.05) in the average values of the characteristics of teeth between one generation and the next; the average number of satisfactory teeth increased gradually between generations; statistically significant differences were found (p‹0.05) in the average number of teeth with caries and in the DMFT index between generations.
Conclusion. Dental caries is a preventable disease given that its causes are known, hence there is a distinct tendency towards its reduction. Nowadays, preventive measures are more publicized both amongst individual patients and the public in general, a fact that has had a certain impact on the population and benefitted oral health conditions.
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