Introduction: Diet is a deeply ingrained element of a person’s life. Children’s dietary habits are a significant contributor to obesity and dental caries. Dental caries during childhood continues to be a significant public health concern, while childhood obesity is increasingly being cited as a major public health problem. This study aimed to assess the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and dental caries in children aged three to 12 years who attended both government and private schools in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional review of 2200 children aged three to 12 years with clinically recorded dental caries. The World Health Organization diagnostic criteria for BMI percentile was used to evaluate and record dental caries clinically. The Mann-Whitney and the Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for univariate comparisons. Results: Mean values between the overweight category and underweight category revealed no significant differences. Conclusion: We found no association between BMI-for-age and dental caries in children in both primary and mixed dentition. This relationship should be investigated further by longitudinal studies.

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fact that the turnover of nurses in the rehabilitation unit at the end of the period under review was less than in any other medical ward of the hospital. ConclusionsA ward that caters for patients with a variety of disabilities has now been operating in a large district general hospital for over three years. The patients referred to this service have almost exclusively had severe or complex neurological disability, or both. The policy ofaccepting patients with unstable or deteriorating conditions requires clear understanding and agreement about ward policy and the objectives of the admission, but the reports later received from the patients themselves lead us to believe that this policy is worth while.Accurate initial diagnostic and functional assessment, regular review, and setting realistic, agreed goals for treatment during both the inpatient phase and prolonged follow up are increasingly seen to be of paramount importance. The processes by which these are achieved have evolved considerably and will undoubtedly continue to do so.As the information presented in this paper is uncontrolled it does not establish that the therapy and training undertaken by the patients altered the natural course of their conditions. It is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of measures intended to accelerate or extend the process of rehabilitation because the patients are difficult to match, therapy cannot be administered in a blinded fashion, and objective evaluation of results is imperfect. Nevertheless, some progress has been made in the assessment of stroke units,4" and an important future aim of the ward will be to assess objectively the treatment of disabling conclitions.