Association between BMI and dental caries among 6,9 and 12 years old children in Tabriz city in 2014

Abstract

Dental caries, especially at an early age is of particular importance. There are many factors associated with dental caries, including genetic factors, nutrition, brushing quality, toothpaste and social and economic status of the family, as well as weight gain and obesity. Obesity is a chronic disease, that has become epidemic in the third world countries, Obesity and overweight defined as much fat accumulated in the body that is affected by psychological and biochemical and metabolic conditions . Obesity is the most common nutritional problem, especially in children that may be associated with dental caries. During the pre-school years children are at greater risk of overweight than children 12 years old children. Two important indicators of children's body are mass index and index of dental caries. In this study, the relationship between these two indexes in 6, 9, and 12 years old children and the impact of factors such as consumption of cariogenic snacks, parents' education, family income status, frequency of dental visits, frequency of consumption of junk food and frequency of brushing decay index is investigated. Materials and methods: In a cross - sectional study in 1393 on 192 children in the age groups 6, 9 and 12 years in Tabriz, the relationship between BMI and the index dmft / DMFT was evaluated. After obtaining the informed consent of the parents and school administrators, dmft / DMFT were Calculated for each child and relationship between BMI and dmft / DMFT was evaluated using Kruskal-Wallis test Results: The mean DMFT were 1.43, 2.07 and 2.19 for six , nine and twelve years old children respectively . The mean dmft was 6.48 , 4.07 and 2.42 for six , nine and twelve years old children respectively . The mean BMI was 17.69 , 18.78 and 20.47 for six , nine and twelve years old children respectively. At the age of six years, there was a significant difference between DMFT in individuals with different body mass, also , there was a significant differences between dmft in individuals with different body mass. At the age of nine and twelve yearsthere was no significant difference between DMFT / dmft in individuals with different body masses. Also we found that consumption of cariogenic snacks and brushing frequency had a significant impact on dmft/DMFT. Conclusions:BMI and nutritional habits have strong relationship with the prevalence of dental caries.