Abstract

TORRES-RAMOS, Gilmer et al. Costs of dental care of children with Early Childhood Caries, caused to the family and the Peruvian government, represented by the Child Heath National Institute. Rev. Estomatol. Herediana [online]. 2015, vol.25, n.1, pp.36-43. ISSN 1019-4355.

Objective: To determine the cost of dental care for children with Early Childhood Caries (ECC) that causes to their families and the Peruvian State, represented by the National Institute of Child Health (INSN) Lima-Peru. Methods: A descriptive, observation and transversal study. The randomly selected sample consisted of 629 children under 71 months of age, treated at the Infant Care Service of the INSN in 2009, the sample was stratified according to clinical condition (healthy or Early Childhood Caries) and procedure performed (preventive and restorative treatment: with behavior management, sedation or general anesthesia). To determine the costs incurred by families, mothers of children were asked and hospital costs were calculated according to the economic report. For statistical analysis software was used Stata v12, applying the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test to compare and find the differences in the studied variables. Results: The frequency of ECC in the evaluated sample was 82.19%. According to the median, families of healthy patients spend over to S / .30.00 (min = 12, max = 84) in methods of prevention and families of sick patients spend over to S / .113.00 (min = 26, max = 761) in restorative treatments caused by CIT, (ratio 1: 4). According the type of treatment performed, as reported by the median, most interesting observation was found under general anesthesia; families spend over to S / .639.00 (min = 440, max = 761), ie 20 times more than in methods of prevention. The biggest part of total spending is taken or subsidized by the hospital, and these costs are even higher. Conclusions: ECC, cause significant direct and indirect costs to families and the State, represented by the hospital. Preventive measures are highly cost effective.

Keywords : Dental caries; economics; public health.

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