Profile of Oral Health and susceptibility to Oral Candidiasis in Patients of Primary Health Care

Abstract

Introduction:The yeasts of the genus Candida are fungi that can cause an infection called oral candidiasis, when there are conditions that favor their proliferation, as the example of immunosuppression and the bad habits of oral hygiene.Objective: Profile oral health of patients seen in the Dental Office of the Family Health Strategy in São Bentinho-PB; and its relation with the susceptibility for oral candidiasis. Method:The study is exploratory, descriptive, quantitative type, held from May to July 2014, with 152 patients of both genders, dental service users for monitoring/dental treatment. The data were collected in an interview guided by structured script. For treatment of the data SPSS was used, in order to provide the descriptive and analytical statistics; with the application of the X 2 test there were correlated variables: age, gender, schooling and oral hygiene habits. Results:Statistical dependence has been identified between the age and educational level (p = 0.003), age and gender (p = 0.002), age and brushing/day (p = 0.035) and education and brushing/day (p = 0.001); the average age of the participants was 30.29 (± 13.83), the majority were female (77.6%), in oral hygiene conditions evaluated on regular and disabled (86.8%); 82.2% presented caries; most (77.6%) had no use of mouthwash; 4.6% presented signs of oral candidiasis. Conclusion:The sample investigated was exposed to several predisposing factors to Candida infections and, therefore, needs to be intensified the educational actions and oral health promotion aimed at this target population.