Caries prevalence of 2 years-old children in Santiago, Chile: A pilot study.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine caries prevalence and its distribution in 2 years-old children in Santiago, Chile
Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional study was 523 children aged 2 years-old, who assisted to public nursery schools in Santiago, Chile. Two calibrated dentists who examined the children visited 24 nursery schools. Those clinical examinations were performed in a school environment according to ICDAS II criteria. Codes 5 and 6 were used to calculate caries prevalence. All parents gave their inform consent for their children being enrolled in this study.

Results: The total prevalence of caries was 10.13%. The most affected tooth by cavitated caries lesions was the right mandibular first molar with a frequency of 5.61%. The less affected tooth was right maxillary canine with a frequency of 0.6%. Mandibular incisors and mandibular canines resulted not affected by cavitated lesions.
Conclusions: In this sample, the total caries prevalence (10.13%) was lower than national caries prevalence (16.8%) for the same age group. Therefore, we observed differences in the distribution of cavitated lesions, being anterior superior teeth more affected than anterior inferior teeth.