Reported prevalence of dental caries in Mexican children and teenagers

Abstract

Dental caries is a serious multifactorial oral disease that causes demineralization of the tooth's hard tissues and affects more than half of the world's population. The objective of this exploratory systematic review was to determine the prevalence of dental caries in Mexican children and adolescents, as well as related factors such as sex, nutritional status, type of dentition, education, living conditions, socioeconomic level, and the type of demographic area. The eligibility criteria to be considered were observational studies whose sample included Mexicans 0-15 years of age in which the prevalence or an index of dental caries had been evaluated. Eligible studies were identified through the search carried out in 6 databases and manual search, without publication time restriction. Fifty-four studies were found that met the eligibility criteria. In these included studies it was observed that, in the last decades, the prevalence of caries in Mexican children and adolescents exhibits a tendency to decrease this disease. In the 1980s, caries prevalences of up to 92.8% were reported; between 1990-1999, the highest reported prevalence was 97%; from 2000-2009, the highest reported prevalence was 95%; from 2010 to 2019 the highest prevalence was 94.6%; and from 2020 and 2021, prevalences of up to 88.5% were reported. Although there has been a decrease in the prevalence of caries in Mexican children, this disease continues to be linked to biological, behavioral and socioeconomic determinants.