RGO: Revista Gaúcha de Odontologia (Jan 2009)

Evaluating gingival health of children who attended the Preventive Program for pregnant women and babies in the city of Teresina

  • Marina de Deus Moura de Lima,
  • Marcoeli Silva de Moura,
  • Lúcia de Fátima Almeida de Deus Moura,
  • Wagner Leal de Moura

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 57, no. 1
pp. 47 – 53

Abstract

Read online

Objective: To assess the gingival health of children who attended the Preventive Program for pregnant women and babies and correlate theresults obtained with the assiduousness of attending the consultations offered by the program, oral hygiene habits, mother’s educational level, family income, child’s age and the number of carious surfaces. Methods: Three hundred and forty-one patients were selected, and divided into two groups for comparative purposes. Group 1 (experimental) was composed of 262 children of both sexes, between the ages of three and six, who attended the Preventive Program for pregnant women and babies; Group 2 (control) consisted of 79 children in the same age group, who did not attend the Preventive Program for pregnant women and babies, but who were attended at the Social Perinatological Institute of Piaui by other health professionals. The exams were performed in dental offices to determine the Gingival Bleeding Index. Results: It was noted that 74.8% of the children from experimental group and 82.3% of control group presented gingival bleeding in one of the sites assessed. Lower Gingival Bleeding Index values were related to the higher educational level of the mothers, supervision or brushing by adults and increase in the number of daily brushings. The Chi-square test showed that the variables are dependent (p<0.001), that is, Gingival Bleeding Index is subject to the number of consultations attended at the Preventive Program for pregnant women and babies. Spearman’s Coefficient (= -0.292) proved that the higher the number of consultations attended at the program, the lower was the Gingival Bleeding Index (p<0.001). Conclusion: The children who presented the lowest gingival bleeding indexes were those who most assiduously attended the preventive maintenanceconsultations of the Preventive Program for pregnant women and babies.

Keywords