Prevalence of black extrinsic dental stains and its relationship with children dental decay in the town of Santa Terezinha de Itaipu - PR

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of black extrinsic dental stains in enamel in children from 6 to 12 years, attending the municipal public and private school of the town of Santa Terezinha de Itaipu - PR, Brazil. It also verified their possible association with dental decay in that age group. Therefore, a random sample of 404 children from five public schools and a private one of the town, in the age group from 6 to 12 years old was selected. A prevalence of 5.7% of extrinsic dental black stains was observed in the sample evaluated. Nevertheless, statistically significant differences in the caries index between the group which showed stains and the one which did not show them were not observed. It was concluded that, the prevalence of black extrinsic dental pigmentations was small in the evaluated group and the caries prevalence in deciduous dentition was smaller in children with black stains. However, these differences were not statistically significant.