DMFT index of 12 year-old students of public schools participating in the Project of Education for Working for Health

Resumo

Epidemiological surveys provide a key basis for
assessing current and future oral health care needs of a population
by yielding reliable data for designing national or regional health
programs [12]. Objective: To assess the oral health status of 12-yearold adolescents by applying DMFT index in the city of Joinville, SC,
who took part in the PEW Health Project 2010-2011 and designing a
comparative study between 2003 and 2010 national, state, municipal
and other DMFT surveys for this same age range. Material and
methods: Analytical cross-sectional observational study. Dental
health assessment tool used was DMFT and deft index. The codes
and criteria used for the survey used the tooth as a study unit
according to methodology proposed by WHO and reported in the
SB-Brazil Assessor’s Manual [3]. Sample size was 194 students
attending public junior high school. Chi-square test for qualitative
variables and Student’s t test for quantitative variables were used,
with two-tailed significance level of 5%. Results: DMFT was 0.84,
standard deviation 1.31 and confidence interval 0.65 (lowest) and
1.02 (highest). Rate of cavity-free children or zero DMFT was 58.8%, a total of 114 children. Conclusion: The students of the city of
Joinville, SC assessed by this study showed low cavity prevalence,
thereby reaching WHO approved targets for 2010.