Dental caries and orofacial pain trends in 12-year-old school children between 1997 and 2003.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of dental caries and orofacial pain in 12-year-old schoolchildren in the Southern Brazilian town of Palhoça in 2003 and to compare it with results from 1997.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was carried out involving 444 randomly selected 12-year-old schoolchildren in 2003. WHO (1997) criteria for dental caries and Locker and Grushka (1987) criteria for orofacial pain were used. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests were used to examine association between variables. To test the independence of variables, logistic regression analysis was performed.


RESULTS
The prevalence of caries was 55.8%. The mean DMF-T was 1.65. Component D was the one that most contributed to the indicator. In 1997, caries prevalence was 73.5% and the mean DMF-T was 2.84. Similarly, the component that most contributed to the indicator was D with 74.0%. In the trend analysis a reduction of 24.1% in the caries prevalence and 41.9% in the severity measured by the DMF-T was observed. The prevalence of orofacial pain was 66.6%. In 1997, the prevalence was 79.5%. In both years the most common type of pain was stimulated toothache. A reduction of 12.9% in the prevalence of orofacial pain and 28.3% in stimulated toothache was observed. Results of the logistic regression analysis showed that orofacial pain was associated with dental caries independently of other studied variables.


CONCLUSIONS
A reduction in both caries and orofacial pain in the studied period was observed. Orofacial pain was independently associated with the presence of caries.
Public Dental Health Research Group, University of the South of Santa Catarina, Tubarão, SC, Brazil. jtraebert@unisul.br
Jefferson
J
Traebert
Josimari Telino
JT
de Lacerda
Tatiana Konrad
TK
Fischer
Yasaka
Y
Jinbo
D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003793:Dental Restoration, Permanent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education; D015995:Prevalence; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000453:epidemiology; D014098:Toothache / Q000453:epidemiology