Dental and periodontal health and treatment needs in a mother/child rural Puerto Rican population

Background: Oral research directed toward the maternal and child dyads is important because mothers are a source of dental caries pathogens and are the health behavior managers and trainers of children. The objectives of this study were: 1) to evaluate the oral health status of the mothers in a sample of 100 children aged 12 to 60 months from a rural community in Puerto Rico, and 2) to compare the children with their mothers' oral health status. Methods: A sample of 71 women and 100 of their children, (Mean Age= 28.8 years [+ or -] 9.0, and 36.41 mos [+ or -] 18.2, respectively) were evaluated for DMFT/S and periodontal health or deft/s. A NIDCR calibrated dentist performed all dental evaluations of children and mothers utilizing NIDCR criteria. Descriptive statistics were produced. Results: Mothers' bleeding point prevalence in at least one site was 63%; prevalence of at least one site with pocket depth of 4 to 6 mm was 37 %. Calculus prevalence was, no calculus 25%, supragingival calculus 56.7%, subgingival calculus 2.2%, supra and sub gingival calculus 16.3%. Mean Dental Indices for mothers were DMFS (16.51 [+ or -] 0.02), DMFT (12.20 [+ or -] 6.76), Caries (2.93 [+ or -] 2.86), Filling (7.07 [+ or -] 8.76), Missing (2.93 [+ or -] 4.53). Children's Mean Dental Indices were defs (4.32 [+ or -] 9.7), deft (2.30 [+ or -] 4.0), decalcifications lesions (1.36 [+ or -] 1.9), caries (1.96 [+ or -] 3.2) and surfaces caries (3.81 [+ or -] 8.68), fillings (0.22 [+ or -] 0.83) and extracted teeth (0.043 [+ or -] 0.45). Conclusions: Significant levels of treated and untreated caries and gingival disease were observed in this sample. The importance for primary and secondary prevention, as well as treatment for periodontal and dental disease, in rural Puerto Rican communities is evident from this investigation. Supported by NIDCR Grant No. RO1 DE 12628. [P R Health Sci J 2010;1:36-39] Key words: Mother child oral health, Women periodontal health El estudio y la investigacion en salud oral materno infantil es de suma importancia ya que en el binomio madre / nino, la madre suele ser la fuente de los patogenos dentales que causan las caries y son ademas las responsables de las practicas en salud de sus hijos. Objetivos: Los objetivos de este estudio fueron: 1) evaluar el estado de salud oral de las madres de un grupo de 100 ninos entre las edades de 6 a 60 meses de edad de una comunidad semi rural de Puerto Rico y 2) comparar la salud oral de los ninos con la salud oral