Dental caries in a young portuguese population

Method: The sample was made of 50 individuals, with ages between 7 and 17, which attend the Egas Moniz University Clinic – Almada - Portugal. The prevalence and severity were measured by DMFT and ICDAS II indexes respectively, and, evaluation of Socio-economic status and dietetic behavior obtained through a questionnaire. Analyses were conducted using SPSS software. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to relate two or more independent samples with quantitative dependent samples without normal distribution respectively. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to analyze normality. Qui-square test used to test the relationship between qualitative variables, when the presupposition was not accomplished the same test was used with Monte Carlo simulation. The ordinary correlational coefficient of Spearman to relate quantitative variables without normal distribution. The reference significance level was fixed, at p ≤ 0,05.

Result: For the prevalence, it was verified a DMFT value of 1,5 and a dmft value of 1,3. Regarding severity, it was verified that 64,34% of all observations presented dental caries, from which 90,05% and 86,38% were enamel caries in permanent and milk teeth, respectively. Prevalence presented significant statistically differences between DMFT value and filled teeth (p=0.008), a high DMFT value (p=0.013), both in 12-17 years old. Between dmft and decayed teeth (r=0,542), filled teeth (r=0,779), both with visits to Dentist.

Conclusion: When studying prevalence with DMFT, we verified an apparently treated population with DMFT values according to the standards for Portugal and goals for Europe. However, when studying severity with ICDAS, we verified that the great majority are enamel dental caries, which are despised by prevalence forgetting that enamel caries are the future dentin caries.