The objectives of this work was to know the dental caries prevalence and treatment need, besides the distribution of the dental caries in a population of 12 year-old teenagers with high incidence of dental caries. 309 adolescents of public schools of Indaiatuba, São Paulo State, in 2004, were examined. They were selected by process systematic random and the exams followed the World Health Organization criteria. The percentile of school caries free was of 38.8%. Among the adolescents examined, 36.6% (n=113) presented dental caries. DMFT was of 2.50 (IC95%=2.07-2.93). The decayed component was the highest (61.0%). The coefficient of Gini was 0.602 and SiC value was of 5.97 (IC95%=5.32-6.62); in this group especially, 74.7% (n=74) presented dental caries activity in the moment of the exam. Thus, it can be concluded that the adolescents of this city presented low dental caries experience; however, their needs were not assisted, once most of DMFT was formed of the decayed component at 12 years old. In the group SiC, it was verified that this came quite high, being recommended actions addressed to this specific group of adolescents.
Oral health; Epidemiology; Dental caries
