Introduction.

Dentistry, a profession with high levels of stress, is associated with a decrease in quality of life and possible risks to oral health.

Objective.

Identify the cariogenic risk from foods consumed by dentistry students in the Biobío region.

Methodology.

Cross-sectional descriptive study with 178 dental students from the Biobio region (Chile), whose analysis considers the self-assessment of academic stress with the Academic Stress Inventory, cariogenic risk through the Lipari and Andrade Cariogenic Food Consumption Survey, and the glycemic index evaluated by the International Glycemic Index Tables. The statistical analysis considers the Chi-square test, with the effect size determined by Cramer's V.

Results.

The students were 22.2 ± 3.1 years old. The prevalence of overweight or obesity was 44.4% (n = 79), 52.8% (n = 94) were of normal weight, and 2.8% (n = 5) were underweight. Additionally, 59.6% (n = 106) reported low stress levels and 57.8% (n = 103) had medium cariogenic risk. The analysis of cariogenic risk revealed significant differences in the intake of 14 food groups, especially those high in sugars. In the overweight/obesity subgroup, significant differences were observed in the consumption of milk, cookies, soda crackers, candies, and sweet pastries.

Conclusion.

An association was found between foods rich in sugar, nutritional status, and cariogenic risk, while appetizing foods were related to academic stress.

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