Objective: To analyze the relationship between caries experience and social insertion in 12-year-old schoolchildren from an urban population in the Ecuadorian highlands. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was conducted in 2023 with 12-year-old students in the Bellavista parish, Cuenca, Ecuador. Caries experience was measured using the severity levels of the WHO (World Health Organization) DMFT index. At the same time, social insertion was determined through the INSOC (Social Insertion) survey. The total population included 458 data points for the caries experience evaluation phase and 422 for the social insertion phase. Pearson's chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests were applied. Results: A percentage of 60.7% of schoolchildren had current caries. Regarding caries experience, 43.7% showed a shallow level, and 11,8% a very high level. Regarding sex, no statisticall...

We performed a comparative analytical study in order to determine the preference it dentists and patients on the clinical use gel with the enzyme papain obtained from Carica pubescens versus conventional rotary method for the removal of tooth decay in children. The research began with pilot-scale production of enzyme gel remover Carica pubescens.To determine the preference of the removal of caries validated questionnaires were applied pretest and posttest to 308 dentists and 308 patients randomly selected children who participated voluntarily, from cities in southern Peru. The dentists were trained in patient selection, the diagnosis of tooth decay, the inclusion and exclusion criteria and clinical application technique of gel. At random was used gel or conventional rotary method at the mouth of a patient with similar clinical features of two oclusal carious lesions and at successive tim...