[Dental caries in preschoolers and students in Monte Patria, region 4].

An epidemiological study on caries prevalence was undertaken on school children and pre-school children aged from 2 to 14 years, of Monte Patria, a small city located in the North of Chile, following the criteria established by the World Health Organization. It was found that the 90.54% of the studied sample had caries, the 21% of the patients lost permanent teeth due to caries, and the presence of filled teeth was detected only in 1.75% of the children. DMFT index of the sample was 5.16 and dmft index was 4.60.