It was realized an epidemiological investigation of dental caries in 860 male and female Brazilians school children, white and non-white from ages 7 to 12 years old, living in 7 orphanages in the city of S. Paulo, Brazil, was conducted to find out whether it was possible to establish, in children living in the same environmental condition, differences in the caries-experience between whites and non-whites. There were controlled very important variables related to the dental carie such as diets and a frequent ingestion of sugar foods during or between meals. There were studied relations among sexes, ages, races and the DMFT, scores as well as the number of the erupted permanent and the mean DMFT for each 100 erupted permanent teeth. Conclusions drawn from the data point out that there are no significant differences of caries-experience in permanent teeth between white and non-white children.
Dental carie; School children; DMFT index; Epidemiological survey
