BackgroundDental caries is highly prevalent and a significant public health problem among children throughout the world. Epidemiological data regarding prevalence of dental caries amongst Pakistani pre-school children is very limited. The objective of this study is to determine the frequency of dental caries among pre-school children of Saddar Town, Karachi, Pakistan and the factors related to caries.MethodsA cross-sectional study of 1000 preschool children was conducted in Saddar town, Karachi. Two-stage cluster sampling was used to select the sample. At first stage, eight clusters were selected randomly from total 11 clusters. In second stage, from the eight selected clusters, preschools were identified and children between 3- to 6-years age group were assessed for dental caries.ResultsCaries prevalence was 51% with a mean dmft score being 2.08 (±2.97) of which decayed teeth constituted 1.95. The mean dmft of males was 2.3 (±3.08) and of females was 1.90 (±2.90). The mean dmft of 3, 4, 5 and 6- year olds was 1.65, 2.11, 2.16 and 3.11 respectively. A significant association was found between dental caries and following variables: age group of 4-years (p-value ² 0.029, RR = 1.248, 95% Bias corrected CI 0.029-0.437) and 5-years (p-value ² 0.009, RR = 1.545, 95% Bias corrected CI 0.047-0.739), presence of dental plaque (p-value ² 0.003, RR = 0.744, 95% Bias corrected CI (−0.433)-(−0.169)), poor oral hygiene (p-value ² 0.000, RR = 0.661, 95% Bias corrected CI (−0.532)-(−0.284)), as well as consumption of non-sweetened milk (p-value ² 0.049, RR = 1.232, 95% Bias corrected CI 0.061-0.367).ConclusionHalf of the preschoolers had dental caries coupled with a high prevalence of unmet dental treatment needs. Association between caries experience and age of child, consumption of non-sweetened milk, dental plaque and poor oral hygiene had been established.

Systematic ReviewPage 55 ABSTRACTEarly Childhood Caries (ECC) is a preventable chronic disease which affects infants and children worldwide. The early detection of ECC can reduce pain, life threatening conditions and helps in the growth and the overall development of the child. The risk factors of ECC include: Mutant Streptococci (MS), dietary and feeding habits, socioeconomic and environmental factors, systemic diseases and certain medications.The aim of this paper is to systematically review the global burden of ECC, contributing risk factors, preventive and treatment strategies. The literature search was based on published systematic reviews which were focused on diseases burden; heterogeneity of research studies on this subject did not allow a meta-analysis.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) and factors leading to it among 71 months of age children or younger in Karachi, Pakistan. ECC is a preventable chronic disease affecting infants and children worldwide. The early detection of ECC can reduce pain and life threatening conditions and help growth and development of infant and children. A crosssectional study was conducted in Karachi, Pakistan. About 650 mothers of children (71 months of age or younger) were randomly selected and interviewed using a pretested semi-structured questionnaire. The dental examination was performed by the dentist, who was calibrated against a standard examiner using World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. The data was entered and analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 16 software. ECC was found in 23.5% of children with mean decayed missing and filled teeth (dmft) of 0.67. The factors identified were age of the child, mother educational and occupational status, sweetened drink consumption at night and not utilizing routine dental health care services. This study concluded that high proportion of ECC was found among children (71 months of age children or younger) and factors identified were all preventable and needs attention to promote dental health education and routine dental visits.