"Oral health of schoolchildren from a Brazilian low-income community and its relationship with family structure and molar incisor hypomineralization"
"Dental caries, molar incisor hypomineralization, marital status, prevalence, Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment"
"It is accepted that the attitudes and behaviors of the family and the mother affect the general and oral health of the child, with reports of an association between the development of dental caries in the child and the marital status of the parents. However, there is no consensus in the literature about this topic, which makes necessary more research about it. In the same way, the developmental defect of the enamel called Molar Incisor Hypomineralization (MIH) increases the chances of a child to present dental caries and when not well trained, dentists can misdiagnose them as caries lesion, which can increase the prevalence of the disease in the population. However, this issue has not been investigated yet. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the impact of the family structure on the oral health status of children, in a high social vulnerable population, as well as to determine the increase in the prevalence of dental caries, when no differentiation between caries lesions and MIH is established. A total of 471 children were examined by a single dentist calibrated for dental caries and MIH, using the Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment (CAST) and the MIH Severity Scoring System (MIH-SSS), and their parents and/or guardians underwent an interview about socioeconomic variables and hygiene habits. The prevalence of caries in the sample, involving having dentin lesions as threshold was 43.74% and, including enamel lesions, 52.87%. The family structure (marital status of the mother and the householder) was not a predictor for caries onset; however, there was a significant association between low maternal education and severe cases of the disease (PR = 1.41; p = 0.0077), low maternal education and episodes of oral pain (PR = 1.47; p = 0. 0335), as well as non-own residence and substantial presence of plaque on the teeth (PR = 1.13; p = 0.0493). The prevalence of MIH was 13.59%. The percentage of patients with caries lesions on permanent teeth was significantly higher among those with MIH than among those without MIH (p < 0.0001), whereas the chances of a child with MIH to present caries lesions was 4.43 times greater than in a child without MIH. It can be conclude that, although the family structure did not have an influence on the occurrence of dental caries in the study population, the family socio-economical characteristics showed to be predictors of the problem as well as the presence of MIH."