Introduction:

oral-dental health is a key indicator of wellbeing and quality of life. Oral-dental diseases as caries, periodontopathies and oral cancer can be prevented and treated at early stages.

Objective:

to determine the behavior of oral-dental diseases in the population attending the dentistry office at Referal Maliana Hospital, Bobonaro district, Timor Leste during 2017-2018.

Methods:

observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study in 480 patients who suffered from some of the oral-dental pathologies chosen by non-probabilistic intentional sampling.

Results:

male sex prevailed (51,9 %), the age bracket most affected was 10-19 years old (40,4 %), dental caries was the pathology having the highest diagnosis (79,1 %) between 0 and 39 years old, gingivitis (58,6 %) in young patients and partially-toothless patients in all ages. Deficient oral hygiene prevailed in both sexes (83,8 %) and mama malus consumption (64,8 %) more observed in women.

Conclusions:

the East Timorese population studied was mainly male, the predominant age group was 10-19 years; the most frequent oral-dental diseases were caries in younger than 40 years old, gingivitis in young population and partial edentulous in all ages. The main risk factors associated were deficient oral-dental hygiene for both sexes and the mastication of mama malus (Areca Nut or Betel Quid) in female population, which evidences a high probability of a continuous increasing and confirms the severity of the oral-dental diseases as a health problem in this population.

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