Oral Health Status, Access to Dental Services and Self-perception of Oral Health in 12 Years Old Schoolchildren

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the oral health status at the population of 12 years of the city of Joao Pessoa-PB and to identify at the sample information about the access to dental services and self-perception in oral health. Method: From the universe composed by all subjects with 12 years old enrolled in educational institutions, the sample consisted of 286 children who were evaluated by examiners previously calibrated. Children answered to a structured interview with variables related to access to dental services and self-perception in oral health. The findings were analyzed of descriptive form. Results: The index DMFT founded was 3.62 (SD=±2.95), noting that 35,09% of the students presented caries free. Among the needs for treatment, restorations of a surface were the most frequent (5.75%). In relation to the DMFT, carious component had the highest percentage (59.86%), followed by obturated (37.52%) and lost (2.61%). The presence of gingival bleeding was detected in 8.86% of sextants examined in scholars and 8.22% had calculus. About the facial abnormalities, 38.14% of the children needed some type of clinical intervention e only 0.35% showed dental fluorosis (grade 2 - very slight). From the 286 interviewed students, 94.05% went to the dentist at least once in their lives and 53.5% reported a situation of poor, bad or regular oral health. Conclusion: the prevalence of caries to scholars of 12 years is moderate and the treatment need is characterized especially by clinical procedures of low complexity and easy resolution. It is expressive the number of scholars who shows signs of gingival alterations, noting a high prevalence of malocclusion and low occurrence of dental fluorosis in the sampled population. Access to dental services was available to a large number of schoolchildren with 12 years, that, in their majority, have not shown a good self-perception of oral health.