Impacto a corto plazo de la cartilla de salud bucal sobre prevalencia de caries en niños de Tijuana, Baja California, México

Abstract

Dental caries is considered a world public health problem. In spite of knowing that prevention is the best tool to its control and eventual eradication, while this prevention’s goal is achieved, the trends to stimulate the curative therapies acquire importance. Therefore the present work established the caries prevalence of children of Tijuana City, Baja California, México, and assessed if this prevalence is influenced by the Buccal Health Card (BHC). The study was done with 964 children; (53.39% boys; 47.61% girls) coming from 10 different kindergartens, and randomly chosen, were provided with a BHC, and then orally examinated every 3 months, to asses caries prevalence. Chi square (p < 0.05) and lineal correlation (IC95%) tests were done. Results: In all cases we observed a diminishment in caries prevalence having statistical significance (S = 0.037) in 6 kindergartens. The dental organ that showed highest caries prevalence was the lower left primary second molar. Conclusion: BHC could be considered as a useful tool to diminish caries prevalence in Mexican children in the Mexican northern border.