[Prevalence of dental caries and associated factors in children at day care centers].
Currently dental caries is regarded as a public health problem throughout world. Ninety percent of the Latin American population suffers from caries. In Mexico, a research informs of a prevalence of 78% in 5-year-old children from the Southern of the Federal District, while the nearby State of Mexico reports 90% in children the same age that suffers from this same problem.


OBJECTIVE
Identifying the prevalence of dental caries, dmf-t and dmf-s indexes, and the relation ship with associated factors in daycare centers of the # 3 Southwest Delegation of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS). A total of 934 children from ages 1 to 6 years of age from October 1997 to May 1998, were studied; 52.3% were boys and 47.7%, girls. The presence of caries was examined and determined through WHO criteria. Socioeconomic level was identified the parents questionnaire. Prevalence of caries in the population studied was 22.1%; we also found a decayed, missing, filled-teeth index (dmf-t) for the whole population of 0.71. The average of this index was 3.71.
Cuéllar-González
M A
MA
Unidad de Medicina Familiar 19, IMSS, México, D.F.
Hernández-Gallardo
I
I
Mondragón-Mojica
M
M
Martínez-Herrera
E
E
Rodríguez-López
A
A
D002648:Child; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D015995:Prevalence