Prevalencia, experiencia y necesidades de tratamiento de caries de la infancia temprana en niños con labio y paladar hendido

Abstract

Cleft lip and palate is a craniofacial malformation that produces aesthetic, phonetic, hearing and dental problems to the affected child. The purpose of this research was to determine the experience, caries prevalence and treatment needs in children with cleft lip and palate at the Clinic for Cleft Lip and Palate of the Dentistry School, University of Los Andes in Merida, Venezuela.A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed. Sample was constituted by 97 childrenaged from 1 to 5 years old.Dentition Status and dental treatment needs indexes wereused, according to the methodology described by the World Health Organization (WHO). Data was analyzed using the SSPS statistical package, version 15.0.Results showed that 18.55% were affected by caries whereas 81.44% were caries free; upper right central incisor was the most affected tooth (50%), followed by the upper right first deciduous molar and the upper left central incisor (44.44%).It was observed aceod of 0.6. Treatment needs for children found were: preventive treatment (68.33%), one surface restoration (3,40%), two or more surfaces restoration (0,13%), pulpar therapy with restoration (0.06%) and extractions (0.33%).The prevalence of dental caries was very low and the higher percentage of required treatments is preventive.Presence of caries indeciduous first molarsshows a risk population for presenting caries in permanent teeth, which implies preventive dentist attention.