Dental caries risk indicators in early childhood and their association with caries polarization in adolescence: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundBased on the hypothesis that biological and social risks accumulate during life, it is important to identify possible dental caries risk indicators from the life course of early childhood and assess their association with caries polarization in adolescence.MethodsA cross-sectional design was applied to the study, and a multistage cluster sampling method used to draw a representative sample of 1063 18-year-old Lithuanian adolescents. The dental examinations were performed according to the methodology for oral status evaluation recommended by the World Health Organization. Parents of the participating adolescents completed a self-administered questionnaire about their children’s life course during early childhood. The interdependence of characteristics was evaluated by chi-square (χ2) and Student’s (t) criteria. A multivariate logistic regression model with the Significant Caries (SiC) index as an outcome was performed.ResultsThe mean scores for the number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) and decayed teeth (DT) in the SiC positive group were higher than the corresponding values in the SiC negative group (6.14 [SD, 2.30] and 1.67 [SD, 2.02] vs 1.28 [SD, 1.11] and 0.34 [SD, 0.69], p < 0.001, respectively). Three dental caries risk indicators were identified that were independently associated with a SiC positive outcome: gender(OR = 1.32 [95 % CI: 1.01–1.73]), earlier eruption of the first primary tooth(OR = 1.43 [95 % CI: 1.03–1.97]), and past caries experience in the primary dentition (OR = 1.62 [95 % CI:1.22–2.14]).ConclusionsThese study findings provide reliable evidence that gender, earlier eruption of the first primary tooth, and past caries experience in the primary dentition should be considered to be dental caries risk indicators and may have an adverse effect on caries polarization in adolescence.

Ethnic variation of oral microbiota in children

“…The microbial community becomes more diverse over the first several years of life and continues to vary through the development of teeth, and finally become stable around adulthood 16 – 18 . Early oral microbiota development has a significant impact on oral health and diseases in adulthood 19 . Understanding the oral microbiota difference in children in different ethnicities including the ethnic minority will allow us to gain deep insight into the factors that might drive oral health disparities.…”

Chronic malnutrition and oral health status in children aged 1 to 5 years

“…Like data described in other studies, [ 47 , 48 ] girls in the present investigation (n = 40) had a mean dmft of 1.87, whereas the boys had a much higher index (2.83). This association may be due to socio-cultural and psychosocial factors, as previous studies report greater awareness and self-care among the female sex, [ 49 – 52 ] although the studies cited involved adolescents.…”

Salivary characteristics and dental caries experience in remote Indigenous children in Australia: a cross-sectional study

“…To address the significantly greater burden of dental caries in this population it is important to investigate risk indicators for caries to inform prevention and health promotion policies and interventions. Whilst many studies show that the strongest predictor of future caries is past caries experience [18], a recent comprehensive review [19] has shown that the utility of biological caries risk predictors differ between countries. Remote Indigenous communities in Australia may have a different mix of risk indicators than elsewhere in Australia, and these may have aspects in common with other Indigenous communities around the world.…”