Caries increment in preschool children : a longitudinal study

الملخص EN

This study was concerned with the caries increment in preschool children after one-year fellow up examination.

Materials and Methods: the sample consisted of 144 preschool children; the sample was examined at November 1997 and was reexamined at November 1998.

The examination included clinical examination of the whole dentition as the dmft was recorded, also the height and weight of children was recorded to find the correlation between caries increment and nutritional status of children.

Results : the increment after one year period (1997 – 1998) in mean value of dmft for different groups which were divided according to their dmft to (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, >5) the increment ranged between (0.5-1.75) the highest increment was in the “2” mean dmft value, (2-3.75),it was demonstrated that there was a correlation (r = 1,00, P< 0.001) between the Body Mass Index (BMI) and Increment in dental caries specially in the undernourished group .

Conclusion : It was found that there was an increment equal to “0.89±0.25” in the mean value of dmft (20.31)% and a strong correlation between nutritional status expressed by Body Mass Index (BMI) and increment in dental caries