THE SOCIOECONOMIC ETIOLOGY OF DENTAL CARIES AND THE PROMOTION OF ORAL HEALTH IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS - EMPHASIS ON THE CITY OF BELÉM - PA

Abstract

Brazil is characterized as the country with the largest number of dentists in the world, however, socioeconomic disparities generate a large discrepancy in the distribution of dental services, which represents one of the factors for a high CPOD index in the North region.  Children and adolescents represent risk groups for the development of dental carie, especially in regions where there is less dental care, and even little demand for care by the population, often due to the lack of oral health education, to understand the importance of dental care and visit to dental offices periodically.  Oral health education is also a method of primary prevention against dental caries, so it should be promoted to the population, especially to children and adolescents who live in areas with difficult access to dental care.  In this sense, the objective of this paper is to study socioeconomic factors such as the etiology of dental caries, as well as oral health promotion actions such as prevention and mitigation of dental caries, with emphasis on the region of Belém - PA in Brazil.