Caries Experience and Associated Risk Factors in Rural Communities.

Objectives: To estimate dental caries experience and to identify determinant associated caries risk factors in 5 rural communities.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with a representative sample of 1137 individuals (Female:595, Male:542), ages 1-85 years-old who resided in 5 Venezuelan rural communities: Altagracia de la Montaña, Caño Mánamo, Playa Colorada, Araure, and Caruao/La Sabana. The dental caries detection was performed by calibrated examiners using ICDAS II criteria. The defs/DMFS and the deft/DMFT indices were calculated. The caries risk was determined using the CariesCare practice guide tool. The statistical analysis was done using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests to evaluate the normality of the sample, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Mann-Whitney U test for sample comparison (p <0.05). Approval of The Independent Bioethics Committee CIBI-CENABI (N^o 10/2021) was obtained.
Results: The prevalence of dental caries among the study population was 93.4%, the DMFT, DMFS, deft, and defs ranged from 6.20-7.37; 12.26-16.99; 3.44-5.15; 6.05-10.19 respectively between the 5 communities. Statistically significant results were found (p=0.000) when comparing the DMFS between genders (Female:16.57, Male:13.67), and the defs indices between communities (p=0,0001) and ethnic groups (p=0.014), being the Warao indigenous community of Caño Mánamo the one with the highest defs=10.19.

The percentage of each of the DMFS/defs components were D=58.75%, M=34.04%, F=7.21% and d=85.82%, e=13.79%, f=0.39% respectively. 72.49% of caries lesions were cavitated and 96.6% of the population was classified as a high risk. The most frequent associated risk factor was the low socioeconomic status 85.8%.
Conclusions: The studied population shows a high and severe dental caries experience with a greater impact on females’ group in permanent dentition and indigenous children. It seems to be mainly associated with a low socioeconomic status. Additionally, we appreciated a low rate of oral treatment indicating a neglected population.