Ingreso económico y su impacto en el índice de higiene oral. Revisión bibliográfica

Abstract

Objective: To determine the oral hygiene index concerning the economic income of the society. Materials and Methods: A documentary-type narrative research was conducted by searching various sources, including PubMed (540 articles), Redalyc (20 articles), and Google Scholar (877 articles), resulting in a total of 1437 articles. After excluding 1395 articles, only 40 articles were selected. Additionally, information was collected from the National Accounts System (SNC by its Spanish acronym) and the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC by its Spanish acronym). Abstracts and, when necessary, complete articles were reviewed to assess their relevance, currency, and reliability, in relation to the research objective. Results: Some studies demonstrate the correlation between health and income. However, their results were not statistically significant. It was determined, with a p < 0.05, that socioeconomic level is not the only factor influencing oral hygiene; instead, it is influenced by multiple factors. Conclusion: Oral health is wholly influenced by some factors that affect its quality, including economic income. By relating them, a financial deficiency intervenes in people's lifestyles (diet, habits, use of oral hygiene resources, access to services, and disinterest due to a lack of knowledge about proper oral health).