Sense of coherence and dental caries experience in preschool children from Belo Horizonte city ; Senso de coerência e experiência de cárie dentária em pré-escolares de Belo Horizonte

Purpose: The objective of this paper was to evaluate the relationship between mother’s Sense of Coherence (SOC) and preschool children’s oral health. Methods: The sample consisted of 42 mothers and their children with ages from 8 months to 5 years old, enrolled in a public day care center in Belo Horizonte city, MG. Mothers answered a retrospective questionnaire concerning questions about their SOC and about their children’s oral hygiene. Children were subjected to dental clinical examination to collect the dmf-t index. These examinations were carried out by one calibrated researcher (Kappa = 0.86) in knee-to-knee position with natural light. Data were analyzed using qui-square test, adjusted odds ratio, and multivariate logistic regression at the significance level of 0.05. Results: No statistical differences were found between the dmf-t index and child’s gender or oral hygiene (P>0.05), nor with mother’s SOC (P=0.335). Children aged 4 to 5 years old had 7.5 times more chance to have dmf-t ≥1 then children aged 8 moths to 3 years old (P=0.019) independently from the other variables. Conclusion: In conclusion the mother’s stress adaptability was not associated with her child’s caries experience in this sample. Key words: Preschool children; oral health; oral hygiene; sense of coherence ; Objetivo: O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a relação entre a saúde bucal de pré-escolares e o Senso de Coerência (SOC) materno. Metodologia: Participaram do estudo 42 mães e suas crianças de 8 meses a 5 anos de idade, matriculados em uma creche pública, em Belo Horizonte, MG. As mães responderam a um questionário retrospectivo sobre o SOC e a higiene bucal de seus filhos. As crianças foram submetidas a um exame físico intra-bucal para o levantamento do índice ceo-d. Os exames foram realizados por um pesquisador calibrado (Kappa = 0,86), em posição joelho-a-joelho, sob luz natural e com o auxílio de um anotador. Os dados foram analisados usando teste qui-quadrado, odds ratio e análise de regressão logística multivariada ao ...