Resumen

FERNANDEZ RAMOS, María Isabel  y  RAMOS DE FERNANDEZ, Isabel Cristina. Risk of appearance of caries in preschool children. Humocaro Alto,  Lara. February-march, 2006. Acta odontol. venez [online]. 2007, vol.45, n.2, pp.259-263. ISSN 0001-6365.

Dental caries constitutes one of the most frequent health problems in our population. It is an infection which can progress to a curable disease and is located on the tooth.  Its appearance various due to factors related to the individual such as dental plaque and the existing substratum in the oral enviroment. In addition, there are social risk factors, such as the socioeconomic stratum, the lifestyle and the cultural standard, which all are interrelated with the biological factors and defines the caries  risk profile of every individual. The aim of this present study was to identify risk factors for dental caries in a population of preschool children. Dietary, environmental, socioeconomic and dependent on the guest factors were studied. Results showed that the risk factors for dental caries that were prevalent in the studied sample were: consumption of mother's lactation beyond the age of 1, prolonged artificial lactation, consumption of milk during night time hours up to the age of 1 year, late beginning of the oral health, use of sugary pacifiers, consumption of sugary food and low percentage of dentist visits. One-hundred percent of the studied sample was located in the labour and marginal social classes.  Factors that contributed to the presence of caries were due to the low- level of education and the lack of access to financial resources. These findings suggest that preschool students are at risk for dental caries constituted by dietary factors, late beginning of oral health habits, late visits or absence of visits to the dentist and low socioeconomic conditions.

Palabras clave : dental caries; early chilhood caries; risk factors for dental caries.