Resumen
Uruguay is a Latin_american developing country with similar patterns of caries as a developed country. One hundred and eight 12 year-old-pupils of state owned schools in three different socio-economic areas (high, medium and low) Montevideo city were surveyed. A cross-sectional study with a structured socio-cultural questionnaire was used to understand the relationship between caries and several variables that confrim to the health and illness epidemiologic profile. The main objectives of the project were: to test the discriminatory power of the Sic index to separate those children who have the worst caries status and correlate it with the social class they belong to and to describe the caries and its relationship with parent's occupation and educational level, overcrowded accommodation, diet, level of achievement of the children in their studies, the type of oral health care and values with respect to caries. The most surprising result was that almost half of the children were caries free but that the distribution was uneven. Schools with pupils of high and medium socio-economic-status behaved as a unit: The percenage of caries free children was 60% at medium and High SES and 11% in low SES. The DMFT frequency distribution was found skewed to the right at medium and high SES and the low SES, folloging a Gaussian distribution. All variables, except those related to health values were found to be associated with caries. The effect of all variables operating together in a certain area seems to be strong and determinant. The area where children live, their daily habits, their lifestyle seem to be determinant of the way all independent studied variables and others are combined. Burt's three-strategies health promotion approach and the multi-sectorial common risk is suggested to tackle caries.