ABSTRACT Objective: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with negative self-assessment of oral health among adolescents living in the Southeast region of Brazil. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using data from the National Oral Health Survey of 2003 and 2023. Through examination and questionnaire, clinical, socioeconomic, and oral health perception data were obtained from 2981 individuals in 2003 and 919 in 2023. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were performed using Poisson regression with robust variance. Results: Negative self-assessment of oral health was observed in 43.9% (95% confidence interval — 95%CI 38.7–49.1) of participants in 2003 and 33.4% (95%CI 27.2–40.3) in 2023. In the multivariate analysis, the factors associated with worse self-assessment of oral health were: being 18 or 19 years old (prevalence ratio — PR 1.04; 95%CI 1.01–1.08 in 2003 and PR 1.27; 95%CI 1.00–1.63 in 2023), not owning a home (PR 1.16; 95%CI 1.01–1.32 in 2003), receiving government assistance (PR 1.40; 95%CI 1.11–1.77), feeling the need for treatment (PR 2.7; 95%CI 1.94–3.74 in 2003 and PR 3.0; 95%CI 1.58–5.70 in 2023), experiencing toothache (PR 1.67; 95%CI 1.38–2.04 in 2003 and PR 1.72; 95%CI 1.17–2.54 in 2023), having dental calculus (PR 1.22; 95%CI 1.04–1.43 in 2003 and PR 1.84; 95%CI 1.28–2.66 in 2023), having missing, decayed or filled teeth (PR 1.02; 95%CI 1.01–1.04 in 2003), loosing teeth due to cavities (PR 2.19; 95%CI 1.42–3.37 in 2023), and last visiting the dentist two to three years earlier (PR 1.89; 95%CI 1.39–2.56 in 2023). Conclusion: A high prevalence of negative self-assessment of oral health was observed among adolescents in the Southeast region, a finding associated with a multidimensional structure of variables.
Neves et al. (Thu,) studied this question.