Conceptualization of dental caries by undergraduate dental students from the first to the last year.

Dental caries, still one of the most common diseases affecting people around the world, has a multifactorial nature encompassing necessary (biofilm accumulation), determinant (exposure to sugars and fluoride) and modulating factors (biological and social). The concepts about caries learned at dental schools may directly influence the conduct of the future dentists regarding the control and treatment of this disease. The aim of this study was to determine the concept that students at the Piracicaba Dental School, University of Campinas, Brazil, have about dental caries. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 274 students answered the discursive question "Conceptualize dental caries". Students' answers were analyzed by a content analysis technique that allowed the creation of response categories and classification of the concepts in categories. Frequencies were expressed as absolute numbers and percentages. Differences between the responses according to the students' class years were tested by the chi-square test. Differences with p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. The response categories were: biological concept (53.6%), restrictive multifactorial concept (12.1%), comprehensive multifactorial concept (8.1%), transmissibility concept (15.8%), and other (10.4%). Differences in response category frequencies were seen between the class years (p<0.001). There was no consensus on the disease definition, although students predominantly had a biological concept of dental caries.