Impacto da erosão dental na qualidade de vida dos usuários da Clínica Escola de Odontologia da UFCG.

Abstract

Studies have shown that in recent years the prevalence of tooth erosion has increased significantly in children, adolescents and young adults, mainly due to the dissolution of dental structure by non-bacterial acids. This may be due to changes in the habits of modern societies where consumption of acidic foods and gastrooesophageal disorders have increased. Thus dental erosion has gained considerable attention from researchers in the past two decades. Nowadays, it is well established that it is a great problem of oral health, being considered its complex etiology because there is a great difficulty of the professionals in the recognition of the dental wear caused by the erosion, since it can be associated with other types of erosions that present different etiology as attrition and abrasion. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of dental erosion in the quality of life of the population that uses the dental services from the UFCG Dental School. To obtain the data, a questionnaire was applied that evaluated the quality of life related to oral health, and the sample was formed by convenience. About 44 patients were interviewed, however, no interviewees reported experiencing any difficulty in carrying out their daily activities. The activities that caused the most impact were: eat or chew food well and smile or show teeth. Thus, with this study, it was possible to observe that dental erosion does not significantly influence people's lives, although a small portion reports some type of difficulty.