Prevalencia de caries dental en pacientes pediátricos con desnutrición

Abstract

Introduction: Malnutrition and childhood caries have been recognized as important public health problems and have serious repercussions on morbidity and mortality in many countries like ours. Just as the consumption of certain foods contributes to the formation of dental caries, an unbalanced and inadequate diet could in some cases produce alterations in the quantity and quality of dental enamel, as well as in the shape, size and number of teeth present in mouth. Objective: To determine the prevalence of dental caries in pediatric patients with malnutrition. Method: It corresponds to a qualitative study of systematic literature reviews with the application of descriptive methods either by journals and scientific articles. Results: The prevalence of dental caries was 91.5%, being lower in males (89.77%) than in females (93.19%). Conclusion: Based on the literature review carried out, studies reveal that there is a close relationship between nutrition and dental caries in children, concluding that the most important factor is the intervention of parents in applying oral care in infants, for this reason it is important knowledge of the contents of food and the amount that children can consume at these ages, in order to avoid the appearance of caries during childhood.