Treatment Needs for Dental Caries and Restorative Care Index on the Permanent Dentition of Nicaraguan Children.

Objective: To determine the treatment needs for dental caries and the restorative care index on permanent dentition of Nicaraguan children.

Subjects and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 1379 schoolchildren aged 6 to 12 years old were evaluated clinically to determine the decay, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) index and to calculate the need for dental caries (TNI) and care indices (CI). Sociodemographic, socio-economic and behavioural data were collected using questionnaires.

Results: The mean age was 9.04 ± 1.98 years and 50.2% were female. A relatively higher percentage of TNI was observed in the following groups: younger children (78.0%), males (60.1%), children of higher birth order (69.1%), children of older mothers (56.7%), having a negative attitude toward oral health (59.9%), with preventive dental care in the past year (94.2%), less frequent tooth brushing (66.3%), with greater presence of plaque (53.9%), larger family (56.3%), higher socio-economic position [SEP; schooling] (60.9%) and lower SEP [occupation] (58.9%). In addition, we observed a higher percentage of CI amongst the following: older children (52.2%), females (49.9%), those of a lower birth order (47.7%), children of young mothers (47.2%), those with a positive attitude toward oral health (48.6%), receiving preventive/curative dental care in the past year (74.3%), most frequently brushing teeth (51.9%), less presence of plaque (50.0%), small family (45.9%), lower SEP [school] (53.5%) and higher SEP [occupation] (52.9%).

Conclusions: We show that Nicaraguan children have high treatment needs for dental caries but had little experience of restorative care.