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The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of childhood malnutrition on salivary flow rate and pH. Four hundred children between 3-12 years were selected for this study. The children were divided into two main groups according to their nutrition status, Group (A): two hundred children representing the malnourished children, Group (B): two hundred children representing the control group. Within Group (A) Children were further divided into 2 subgroups, subgroup (1): one hundred stunted children and subgroup (2): one hundred underweight children. Every child was subjected to unstimulated and stimulated saliva flow and pH measurements and caries status evaluation using dmf index for primary and DMF index for permanent teeth. The results showed undernutrition (underweight) and stunting reduced the secretion rate of stimulated saliva and no effect on unstimulated salivary flow rate or saliva pH. Moreover, undernutrition (underweight) increased the caries index of primary teeth, while stunting increased the caries index of permanent teeth. It was concluded that malnutrition causes enamel hypoplasia, salivary gland hypofunction and saliva compositional changes and these might be the mechanisms through which malnutrition associated with caries.

Background: obesity and iron deficiency anemia are major health problems that are increasing in Egypt especially in females. Aim of work: this study aimed to evaluate the iron status in obese Egyptian females in comparison to normal weight females. Patients and Methods: forty four obese adult female patients and 44 normal weight healthy females as control group were included in this study. They were all tested for iron profile and CRP using semi quantitative rapid latex agglutination test. Results: the patient group in this study showed a significant lower serum Fe and TSI than the control group, while ferritin was higher in patients than the control group. The comparison between the three groups of obesity showed that the grade III patients had the lowest median value in serum iron and the highest median value in TIBC and ferritin, however no statistical significant differences were detected between the three groups of patients (P>0.05). Our results showed that 70.4%) of patients had positive CRP with positive correlation between CRP and BMI. Conclusion and Recommendations: obesity is a low inflammatory disease which affects iron profile and increases CRP. Further, study on larger number of cases is recommended to analyze the exact mechanism of iron deficiency anemia in obese female patients.

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