Abstract

DE MELO E SILVA, Renata et al. Structural and microbiological analysis of children´s pacifiers in public and private nursery schools. Rev Cubana Estomatol [online]. 2014, vol.51, n.1, pp.24-34. ISSN 0034-7507.

Introduction: the use of pacifiers can cause risks to children health, resulting in opportunistic infections and accidents. Objective: our paper intends to evaluate the structural and microbiological conditions of children pacifiers at public and private nursery schools, in the city of Imperatriz, Maranhão, Brazil. Methods: thirty children pacifiers from public (n = 15) and private (n = 15) nursery schools, were evaluated considering their adequacy to Brazilian standards such as presence of dirt, and presence of infectivity by mutans streptococci group, Candida sp. and Enterococcus sp. The care provided for the use of pacifiers was asked to the parents and caregivers through a questionnaire. Results: the analyzed pacifiers met the Brazilian standards (100 %). Pacifiers were infected by the three groups of microorganisms studied (>15 %), with higher prevalence (p < 0.05) to Candida sp (93.3 %). There was no statistically significant difference between the type of nursery school and the presence of dirt or infectivity of pacifiers (p > 0.05). Conclusion: the morphological conditions and contamination of pacifiers did not vary between the types of nursery schools, verifying that the necessary hygiene and care to the management of these pacifiers were inadequate despite the suitability to Brazilian standards. Sschool and dentists have an important hole in modifying this condition.

Keywords : contamination; pacifiers.

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