Determinación social y caries dental en niños escolarizados. Bucaramanga, Colombia

Abstract

Introduction. Oral pathologies, especially dental caries, register high prevalence in Colombia infantile population. This situation is developed in the middle of a complex dynamic biological phenomena and its relationship with the family dynamics in a political, economic and socio-cultural context. For this reason, an approach that made it possible to understand its reality and the processes was essential. Objective. Characterize the oral health conditions of the school population from 6 to 12 years of age that attends the Maria Reina de las Misiones community dinning facility and comprehens the processes of the social determination of the caries of the participants, from the perspective of the different actors involved Materials and methods. The methodological formulation of the research process was focused on the Social Determination of Health, a mixed method with a qualitative central component was developed, through the Grounded Theory, which first implied the execution of the quantitative component. In the developed process, extensive techniques were triangulated, including surveys of 49 participants obtained from secondary sources and intensive techniques that included in-depth interviews with caregivers, focus groups on children, observation and documentary analysis of the different health-related policies. Results. Social determination and dental caries in school children presents processes of the singular level, related to the oral conditions of children, processes of the particular level that involve labor, consumption and sociocultural dynamics that in turn are subsumed in the processes of the general level where the political, economic and cultural dynamics intervene Conclusion. The high prevalence and experience of dental caries in children from 6 to 12 years old, at a singular level, are related to the non-strengthening of programs focused on prevention; at a particular level with labor informality, the cost overruns and economic limitations for oral care, the overload of responsibilities of the mother, the low value to the temporary dentition and ignorance of the dynamics of oral diseases and at structural level the limiting processes related to the public spending, the extreme gaps between social classes and the processes of gender violence that affect women and minors.