Influência da classe social nas razões clínicas das perdas dentárias

Abstract

In order to determine the influence of social class on clinical reasons for tooth loss in Maceió, the Alagoas State capital in Northeast Brazil, a cross-sectional study was conducted of 466 adults whose ages ranged from 18 to 76 years. Socioeconomic and demographic data were collected through a questionnaire. Clinical examinations determined the reason for extracting teeth, recording the DMF-T of all patients, who were divided into social classes on the basis of the data gathered from the questionnaire: 54.1% of the subjects were female with a mean age of 33.73 ± 13.68 years; 369 (79.2%) of them had not completed their secondary education and 385 (82.6%) had family incomes no more than four times the official minimum wage (mean 3.4 ± 5.4). The main reason for the loss of permanent teeth was caries. The patients presented an average of 16.59 ± 6.96 decayed, lost or filled teeth and most of them (219?47%) had a DMF-T of 11 to 20 teeth. A statistically significant difference was noted between reasons for tooth loss and social class (P<0.001), leading to the conclusion that social class significantly influenced clinical reasons for tooth loss.