The Influence of Lifestyle on the Incidence of Dental Caries among 3-Year-Old Japanese Children

Abstract

The present cohort study examined how lifestyle, household environment, and caries activity test score of Japanese children at age 1.5 years affected their dental caries incidence at age 3. Inclusion criteria were 1.5-year-old children with no dental caries. Dental examinations were performed for 33,655 children who participated in routine dental examinations at 1.5 years of age, and the exam was repeated approximately 21 months later (at age 3) at the Kobe City Public Health Center in Japan. After excluding 622 children who had caries at age 1.5 and 1831 children with missing lifestyle and household environment data in the questionnaires, the final data analysis was performed on a total of 31,202 children (16,052 boys, 15,150 girls).The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated a strong association of the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages/snacks, less frequent tooth brushing by the parents, lack of fluoride varnish, family history of smoking, with the risk of developing dental caries. A child’s late bedtime is also one of the major risk factors for dental caries development. Further investigation is needed to examine whether the short duration or the irregularity of the sleep-wake cycle would affect early childhood oral health and whether there is a relationship between late bedtime and late night snack intake.

Association of Environmental Tobacco Smoke with the Risk of Severe Early Childhood Caries among 3-Year-Old Japanese Children

“…Although our results confirmed those of other studies showing an effect of ETS exposure at home on dental caries [Williams et al, 2000;Aligne et al, 2003;Shenkin et al, 2004;Tanaka et al, 2006;Hanioka et al, 2008;Leroy et al, 2008;Tanaka et al, 2009;Tanaka and Miyake, 2012;Watanabe et al, 2014;Nakayama and Mori, 2015;Nakayama and Mori, 2017], other studies investigated the effect of ETS on ECC only.…”

“…Recently, it was suggested that children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) have an increased risk of dental caries in deciduous dentition [Williams et al, 2000;Aligne et al, 2003;Shenkin et al, 2004;Tanaka et al, 2006;Hanioka et al, 2008;Leroy et al, 2008;Tanaka et al, 2009;Tanaka and Miyake, 2012;Watanabe et al, 2014;Nakayama and Mori, 2015;Nakayama and Mori, 2017]. Aligne et al [2003] reported that an elevated serum cotinine level was significantly associated with an increased risk of both decayed and filled teeth of US children from 4 to 11 years of age.…”

The association between diabetes mellitus, sugar-sweetened beverages, and tooth loss in adults

“…SSB consumption and adverse dental health outcomes have been associated in children. 45–48 However, study results of tooth loss, SSB consumption in adults with and without DM have not been previously presented in peer-reviewed journals.…”

Hydration in Children: What Do We Know and Why Does it Matter?

“…Moreover, 55% of children and adolescents in the sample consumed more than 1 serving of SSB daily, while up to 21% did not drink water on a daily basis in some countries (unpublished data). This raises concern since the negative consequences of SSB consumption on children's health have been highlighted in numerous studies demonstrating that children who consume one or more SSB serving per week have a 50-80% increased risk of dental caries, overweight and obesity, and metabolic syndrome compared with non-or sporadic consumers of SSB [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”