Estratégias utilizadas pela equipe de saúde bucal para a prevenção da cárie dentária em crianças escolares de 02 a 12 anos: revisão integrativa

Abstract

Dental caries is considered the most common and prevalent oral disease in childhood, consisting of a major public health problem. The purpose of this article is to identify and describe the strategies used by the Oral Health team to prevent dental caries in schoolchildren aged 2 to 12 years. An Integrative Literature Review was carried out, using the following databases to search: Lilacs, Scielo, BBO and Periódicos Capes, through the descriptors: Dentistry, dental caries; oral health; preschoolers; schoolchildren; health education, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, published from 2014 to 2021. 30 studies were identified and, after applying the inclusion criteria, 15 articles were selected. Most of the manuscripts were published in the years 2015 and 2018, 09 were classified as Intervention projects, 02 experience reports, 01 analytical cross-sectional quantitative; 01 descriptive; 01 qualitative descriptive and 01 exploratory descriptive with qualitative approach. As main strategies, educational lectures / workshops, playful activities, supervised brushing, oral hygiene guidance and topical application of fluorine stood out. It is concluded that the execution of educational programs and strategies for the prevention of dental caries is of paramount importance for the promotion of the health of students, and should therefore be encouraged and adopted routinely by the Oral Health teams, in order to minimize the complications it causes, thus improving children's oral health.