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- Title
Early childhood caries and feeding practices in kindergarten children.
- Authors
Qadri, Ghalib; Nourallah, Abdul; Splieth, Christian H.
- Abstract
Objective: To determine the prevalence and severity of early childhood caries (ECC) and its relation to feeding practices in Syria. Method and Materials: A total of 400 children aged 3 to 5 years (mean age ± SD, 4.2 ± 0.5) were screened from 20 randomly selected kindergartens in Latakia, Syria. Dental examinations were carried out by a specialist in pediatric dentistry using DMFT and DMFS indices and an ECC scoring system. Information regarding feeding practices during early childhood was also collected. Results: Caries was seen in 70% of the children, with a total mean DMFT value of 4.25 ± 4.2 per child. The mean values increased from 2.4 ± 3.2 DMFT at age 3 to 5.6 ± 4.9 at age 5 (4.1 ± 6.3 and 12.8 ± 12.0 DMFS, respectively). Age and feeding practices showed statistically significant associations with caries (P < .001). The mean DMFT in the bottlefed children was 5.33 ± 4.6 compared with only 3.27 ± 3.5 in predominantly breastfed children. Forty-eight percent of the children had ECC, and 24% showed a severe degree with carious defects and open caries lesions. A significantly higher prevalence and severity of ECC was observed in children who were bottlefed (z-statistic, -2.1; P = .036) compared with breastfed children. Conclusion: In addition to a high prevalence of caries and ECC in preschool children, bottle-feeding led to even higher caries rates in Syria. Since the caries was largely untreated, preventive and restorative dental programs should be implemented.
- Subjects
SYRIA; ARTIFICIAL feeding; BREASTFEEDING; CHI-squared test; CONFIDENCE intervals; DENTAL caries in children; EPIDEMIOLOGY; STATISTICS; U-statistics; LOGISTIC regression analysis; DATA analysis; DISEASE prevalence; SEVERITY of illness index; DATA analysis software
- Publication
Quintessence International, 2012, Vol 43, Issue 6, p503
- ISSN
0033-6572
- Publication type
Article