PREVALENCE OF DENTAL CARIES IN SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

Dental caries stands out as one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in childhood, representing a significant public health challenge on a global scale. This condition directly affects the well-being and quality of life of children, resulting from a complex interaction between dietary factors, oral hygiene practices, and socioeconomic conditions. These factors contribute to an unequal distribution of the disease among different populations, highlighting the need to better understand the current landscape of caries prevalence in schoolchildren and which determinants exert the greatest influence in different social and geographical contexts. Thus, this work proposes an integrative literature review to deepen this analysis. To this end, a comprehensive assessment of caries prevalence in school-aged children was conducted, correlating it with risk factors, especially dietary and oral hygiene habits, in addition to considering the role of socioeconomic determinants and the importance of diagnostic criteria used for more precise and reliable epidemiological surveillance. To this end, an integrative review was conducted through a search of scientific articles in the BVS Odontologia, PubMed, Scielo, CAPES, and LILACS databases, covering the period from 2015 to 2025. The descriptors “Dental Caries”, “Prevalence”, “Child”, “Students”, and “School-age children” were used. The results revealed that the overall prevalence of childhood caries remains high, reaching approximately 49%, although with significant variations between countries. It was observed that factors such as low parental educational level and frequent sugar consumption are strongly associated with a higher risk of developing the disease. Similarly, inadequate oral hygiene practices, such as infrequent brushing, correlate with greater severity of carious lesions. Furthermore, it was found that the inclusion of initial enamel lesions in the diagnostic criteria increases the reported prevalence rates, suggesting significant underreporting. In general, it was found that dental caries has a negative impact on the oral health-related quality of life of children. Given this evidence, it is concluded that dental caries still represents a significant public health problem, strongly influenced by socioeconomic and behavioral factors. Therefore, the importance of preventive policies and strategies aimed at more vulnerable groups is reinforced, as well as the standardization of diagnostic criteria that consider initial lesions, thus ensuring more accurate and efficient epidemiological surveillance.