Abstract

MURRIETA PRUNEDA, José Francisco; JUAREZ LOPEZ, Lilia Adriana; LINARES VIEYRA, Celia  and  ZURITA MURILLO, Violeta. Prevalencia de gingivitis en un grupo de escolares y su relación con el grado de higiene oral y el nivel de conocimientos sobre salud bucal demostrado por sus madres. Bol. Med. Hosp. Infant. Mex. [online]. 2004, vol.61, n.1, pp.44-54. ISSN 1665-1146.

Introduction. The establishment of gingival disease is associated to multiple factors; its infectious etiology was determined 3 decades ago. Nevertheless, social and cultural factors associated to gingivitis have been less studied. The purpose of the present survey was to evaluate the possible influence of the level of knowledge on oral health of mothers of scholars and oral hygiene quality on gingivitis prevalence of their children. Material and methods. A sample of 389 scholars were surveyed. For the epidemiological data collection, the criteria of the Green & Vermillon Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (SOHI) and the Loe & Sillness' Gingival Index (GI) were considered with a previous inter and intra searchers calibration (Ca =89%, Cr =93% and K=90%). To evaluate the level of knowledge on oral health, a questionnaire was applied to all mothers. Results. Only 20.6% of scholars showed gingivitis with not significant statistical differences observed regarding the location of the gingival mucosae (t =1.327, P =0.8179; t =2.131, P =0.4288). Nevertheless, a significant statistical relation between the quality of the oral hygiene (P =0.0001) and the level of knowledge on oral health (P =0.05) was found. Conclusions. Gingivitis prevalence on scholars was less than expected. Oral hygiene importance on the establishment and development of the gingival disease was confirmed. The level of knowledge on oral health of mothers influenced the children's risk to present the disease.

Keywords : Scholars; gingivitis; oral hygiene.