Relation between Dental Caries and Body Mass Index-for-age among Schoolchildren of Jazan City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objective: To analyze and report the type of relation present between dental caries and body mass index (BMI)-for-age among schoolchildren in Jazan region of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Materials and methods:A cross-sectional study with multistaged random sampling technique was designed to recruit the sample of schoolchildren. Caries was examined using the World Health Organization recommended "decayed and filled teeth"/"decayed missing and filled teeth (dft/DMFT)" method. The BMI-for-age was calculated using the value obtained from body weight and height (kg/m 2 ) of each child. The obtained results were plotted on age-and gender-specific percentile curves by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and categorized accordingly. Chi-squared test was conducted to analyze the relation between BMI-for-age and dental caries. Logistic regression was performed to judge the predictor variables. The p-value < 0.05 was considered as significant. Results:A total of 360 children were part of this study with equal recruitment from both genders. The mean dft/DMFT value for girls (2.52) was more than that for boys (1.88); and the (p = 0.00) calculated value was statistically significant. Most of the children had normal BMI-for-age (60.6%) and very few were obese (4.7%). Dental caries, fast food, and snacks between meals were significant independent predictor variables for BMI (p < 0.05). Dental caries was a strong predictor, and the analysis showed that children with untreated caries had 81% (odds ratio = 0.19; confidence interval = 0.65, 0.58) higher chance of suffering from low BMI. Relation between Dental Caries and Body Conclusion:To conclude, this is the first study attempted to see the relationship between BMI-for-age and dental caries among schoolchildren in Jazan city of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Negative relation between dental caries and BMI should warrant health promoters about dental caries as a reason for low BMI in a subset of children.Clinical significance: High and alarming percentage of untreated dental caries demonstrates the oral health needs among the schoolgoing children in Jazan region. Public health dentists should develop and implement prevention programs so that the oral health issues among schoolchildren are addressed.

Association between Dental Caries and Obesity in Children and Young People: A Narrative Review

“…Another explanation for the inverse association might be that children with untreated caries could experience pain and infection, thus preventing them from consuming adequate nutrition. In addition, other factors that contribute to overall wellbeing could be affected, including the ability to sleep, which in turn may lead to malnutrition and growth impairment [12, 18, 20, 25, 36]. The wider literature suggests that underweight children gained weight after receiving dental treatment [19, 50].…”

“…While some studies reported more dental caries in boys [19, 20], Quadri et al [12] found more dental caries in girls. By contrast, some studies concluded that there is no difference in dental caries between both genders [18, 25].…”

“…Most studies used decayed, missing due to caries, filled teeth indices for primary and permanent dentitions (dmft/DMFT) according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria [12, 16, 19, 20]. According to the WHO criteria, only the cavitation is inspected and recorded as a carious lesion, and noncavitation carious lesions are not included.…”

“…Since the publication of these reviews, many further studies have been conducted to assess the association between obesity and dental caries in various populations and countries [12–16].…”

Associação entre lesões de cárie dentária e defeitos do desenvolvimento do esmalte com o índice de massa corporal e com polimorfismos nos genes que codificam as metaloproteinases 8, 13 e 20, em crianças de Manaus - AM

“…Entretanto, outros autores não demonstraram essa relação (Silva et al, 2016;Khadri et al, 2018;Carson, 2018;Paisi et al, 2018). Alguns estudos recentes não encontraram uma associação entre cárie dental e obesidade, quando avaliaram a cárie precoce da infância (Aluckal et al, 2016;Krishna et al, 2017) e cárie dental em crianças e adolescentes (Almerich-Torres et al, 2016;Farsi et al, 2016;Guizar et al, 2016;Liang et al, 2016;Farsi e Elkhodary, 2017;Krishna et al, 2017;Kumar et al, 2017;Quadri et al, 2017), evidenciando que essa associação pode ser variável, de acordo com a população avaliada.…”