Objective:

To describe the lesions in dental tissues and oral health disorders found during the occupational medical examination of workers in the construction sector in Lima, Peru.

Material and methods:

A cross-sectional epidemiological study was carried out on 150 workers in the construction sector, selected by simple random sampling. A stomatological evaluation was carried out by direct observation, and a dental-occupational evaluation instrument was used with indexes for dental caries, caries severity and dental trauma, and indicators of clinical consequences of untreated caries (pulp pathology) and non-carious lesions.

Results:

The caries experience of operators without higher education (CPOD = 14.99) and with higher education (CPOD = 13.06) was higher than that of supervisors (CPOD = 8.23) and administrative workers (CPOD = 5.08). The operators without higher education (SiC = 18.04) and with higher education (SiC = 17.17) presented worse caries significance indicators compared to supervisors (SiC = 13.67) and administrative workers (SiC = 8.25). In addition, operators without higher education had a higher burden of clinical consequences of untreated caries (PUFA = 2.35; severity = 9.2%) compared to operators with higher education (PUFA = 1.91; severity = 8.4%), supervisors (PUFA = 0.53; severity = 2.1%) and administrators (PUFA = 0.46; severity = 1.8%), as well as a higher frequency of non-carious lesions (47.3%) and dental trauma (21.3%).

Conclusions:

Dental health, its clinical consequences, and the structure of the dental tissues of the operative workers of a construction company are more affected compared to the other labor groups of the same company.

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