Caries dental y determinantes sociales en escolares de 9 a 12 años. Bucaramanga, Colombia

Abstract

Introduction: the social determinants of health generate multiple risk factors that trigger various pathologies, dental caries is a multifactorial disease, it affects the majority of the population. Objective: to evaluate the relationship of Social Determinants of Health with the presence of dental caries in school children from 9 to 12 years of age from the Dámaso Zapata Technical Institute of Bucaramanga. Materials and methods: a descriptive observational cross-sectional study was carried out, with a sample of 246 participants, an oral clinical examination was performed to assess the presence, activity and severity of dental caries, in addition, a survey based on social determinants was applied to establish the association existing. Results: a relationship was found between dental caries and social determinants in the following variables: use of dental service (P = 0.047), reason for consultation (P = 0.005), practices implemented in daily life (P =0.031), supervised brushing (P =0.005), time dedicated to mouth care (P =0.001), the oral hygiene elements (P = 0.015), brushing frequency (P = 0.002), socioeconomic stratum (P = 0.0365), reasons for which they do not spend time caring for the child's mouth (P = <0.001) and financial responsible (P = 0.018). Conclusions: The social determinants of health that behave as risk factors and that negatively impact the lives of minors were identified. These are: the socioeconomic, economic responsible, brushing frequency, elements of oral hygiene, use of dental services, time dedicated to the care of the child's mouth, practices implemented in daily life, supervised brushing and reason for consultation already that present statistically significant differences.