Frequency of Dental Consultation During Early Childhood. : Medellín, 2011

Ángela María Franco Cortés

Universidad de Antioquia

Blanca Susana Ramírez Puerta

Universidad de Antioquia

Emilia María Ochoa Acosta

Universidad de Antioquia

Introduction: The main objective of this study was to establish the frequency of dental consultation by children who attend community homes that belong to the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (icbf, Colombian institute for family welfare) in Medellin.

Methods: We performed a descriptive evaluation to ascertain the frequency of dental consultation by 320 children from icbf with ages between 6 months and 5 years. Surveys were used to gather information from mothers or primary caregivers.

Results: 57.2% of the children had been previously taken to the dentist. 89.6% of those children had been taken within the last year. Among the reasons given by care givers to not attend dental consultation, 56.4% stated that children were too young and 22.1% revealed that they requested the appointment but it was not scheduled. Significant differences regarding type of social security insurance or socioeconomic status among those who were taken to the dentist and those who were not were not found (Chi2 2,87, p value 0,4117 and Chi2 5,84; p value 0,5399, respectively).

Conclusion: There is a low frequency of dental consultation by boys and girls during the early childhood despite the fact that such procedure is important for their adequate emotional and physical growth and development and that other studies have shown that cavity prevalence is high in this population.

Keywords: access to care, early childhood, oral health, health services

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2013-06-30
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https://plu.mx/plum/a/?doi=10.16925/od.v9i16.5