Abstract
This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the occurrence of the consequences of dental caries and factors affecting dental service utilization in a population of 7-year-old children. The research included oral examination of 7-year-old schoolchildren and socio-medical study of their parents/legal caregivers. It was carried out in five primary schools of two provinces, i.e., Greater Poland and Lubusz. Dental examination was performed in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. The socio-medical study consisted of questionnaires with close-ended questions concerning socioeconomic characteristics of the family, reasons and time of the last visit at the dental office, consequences of child’s oral health problems, parents’ attitude towards dental visits, and parental opinion about their child’s teeth. Factors affecting utilization of dental services were statistically analyzed using univariate logistic regression assuming p < 0.05. The pufa index of examined children ranged from 0 to 7 (mean 0.80 ± 1.49), while the dmf index ranged from 0 to 14 (3.86 ± 3.32). Low financial burden of oral health expenditures and university education of at least one of the parents significantly increased the chance of visiting a dentist despite lack of pain (OR = 3.0 and 2.5, respectively). In spite of the availability of free dental care for children, socioeconomic factors still determine the utilization of dental services in Poland. Poor oral health status of examined population and negligence of regular dental check-ups emphasize a need to strengthen oral health literacy of parents and children, promoting proper attitudes towards dental care.
Highlights
Dental caries is a multifactorial chronic disease that poses a very serious global health problem since it involves most of the population [1,2,3]
Because of possible complications and consequences of untreated caries, the oral health status of children was described with the use of dmft/DMFT index and by the pufa index presented by Monse et al in 2010 [5,18,24,26], which evaluates the advanced caries stages with dental sepsis or pulp exposure [5]
It must be remembered that unexplained fever in children might be caused by an abscess associated with carious tooth with infection spreading into the bone of maxilla or mandible, which is a life-threatening complication [12]
Summary
Dental caries (decay) is a multifactorial chronic disease that poses a very serious global health problem since it involves most of the population [1,2,3]. Numerous environmental and individual risk factors are responsible for this disorder’s occurrence and development These components are related e.g., to the genetic factors, the transmission of germs between hosts, bacterial flora, flow rate and composition of saliva, hygienic and dietary habits, socioeconomic status, parental education, and oral health care availability [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Caries begins with small subsurface demineralization or surface roughness [12] Such an incipient caries lesion (early enamel caries/white spot lesion) might be treated noninvasively using remineralizing prophylactic agents utilized during daily hygienic procedures and therapy at the dental surgery by professionally applied fluoride treatment [13].
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