AIM:

Investigating dental caries prevalence and the need of student’s treatment in a small municipality.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

A population composed by 217 students was studied, 161 (74.2%) from the urban zone and 56 (25.8%) from the rural zone, resident in Independência, Rio Grande do Sul. The indexes DMFT and dmft for dental caries were used, and the need of dentistry treatment was evaluated according to codes and criteria from Projeto SB Brasil, 2010.

RESULTS:

Regarding to the presence of dental caries, it was observed that 83.8% (93) of the students presented caries at 06 years old, and 94.3% (100) at 12 years old. The dmft at 6 years was 4.17 and DMFT at 12 years was 3.53. Regarding to the need of treatment, 71.8% (156) of students needed some type of attention, and the surface restoration was the most prevalent.

CONCLUSION:

High prevalence of dental caries was found, both at 6 and 12 years old (4.17 and 3.53) respectively, and 71.8% needed some type of treatment. The most prevalent treatments were dental surface restoration, dental extraction and sealing pits and fissures.