Socio-economic status and caries experience in primary teeth among schoolchildren of 1-st grade in Bucharest

There are large disparities in oral health between the poor and wealth people. Caries disease process involves host, environment and agent variables. The objective of the paper is to analyze the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and dental caries in primary teeth among schoolchildren in Bucharest. Method: the crosssectional survey included 510 children aged 6 years, which were examined and interviewed according with WHO criteria. Results: there is evidence for an inverse relationship between SES and the caries experience in deciduous dentition among studied schoolchildren: as socio-economic status increase, disease and its impacts decrease. Conclusions: low SES may serve as a marker for increased risk caries; schoolchildren of lower SES must benefit from more frequent and intensive preventive services, education and health promotion activities. Key-words: caries experience, primary teeth, socio-economic status 1 PhD, Lecturer, DDS, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Oral Health Department, Bucharest, Romania. 2 DDS, PhD student, Assistant., University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Oral Health Department, Bucharest, Romania prevention and to integrate oral health into national health programmes. Material and method This cross-sectional study was conducted in dental offices within schools in Bucharest, during 20052007. Following written informed consent of parents, 510 urban schoolchildren (52.9% female, 47.1% male) aged 6 and 7 years were clinical examined according with WHO criteria. Schoolchildren were randomly selected from12 schools in Bucharest, with different socio-economic backgrounds. Collected data were: general data of every child (name, age and gender) deciduous caries experience periodontal status index of Orthodontic Treatment Needs (IOTN) oral hygiene (visible dental plaque index) socio-economic status of the family: occupation of the parents (according with the arborescent structure of occupation classification in Romania), the income and birth order (e.g. parenting skills improve with later children but with more demands on parent’s time [1]). The scale used for socioeconomic status (SES) is: low (SES 1) moderate (SES 2) high (SES 3)