Early Childhood Caries: Prevalence and Risk Factors in Seoul, Korea

Abstract

This study demonstrates that the prevalence of ECC was high among children in Seoul. Early educational intervention programs for pregnant women and mothers of young children should be developed based on the risk factors identified in this study.

Socioeconomic, Nutritional and Behavioral Factors Associated with Severe Childhood Caries in Children Aged 18-36 Months

“…No statistical significance was found in relation to this variable and the occurrence of severe childhood caries (p>0.05), which results are similar to other studies that also found no association [7,13]. However, some studies have found a statistically significant relationship between occurrence of severe childhood caries and low income level [15,22,24,28]. According to these authors, the higher the income level, the lower the incidence of severe childhood caries.…”

“…Although the increased use of nocturnal bottle, coupled with early weaning, is considered a predisposing factor for severe childhood caries, the findings of this research did not examine the association between bottle use and the occurrence of caries (p>0.05), since 70% of children who had caries did not have this habit. Reinforcing this finding, other studies [7,13,15], also found no significant association between daily frequency of use of bottle containing fermentable carbohydrates and the occurrence of severe childhood caries. Caries is a disease that can be prevented, provided there is early intervention and families at risk receive oral hygiene guidance [1][2][3][9][10][11][12].…”

“…However, other studies [12,15,18] have reported that children who have the habit of unrestricted use of the bottle, wake up to feed, sleep while sucking foods containing sugar in its composition or added, are more prone to developing severe childhood caries [19]. Although the increased use of nocturnal bottle, coupled with early weaning, is considered a predisposing factor for severe childhood caries, the findings of this research did not examine the association between bottle use and the occurrence of caries (p>0.05), since 70% of children who had caries did not have this habit.…”

“…The high frequency of sugar consumption in the form of sweets between meals found in this study showed a significant association (p<0.05) in the occurrence of severe childhood caries (70%), as observed in research with children in Brazil [14] and South Korea [15]. The consumption of cariogenic foods offered by mothers to children between meals may represent a risk factor for the occurrence of severe childhood caries [5,13].…”

“…The prevalence of severe childhood caries varies from 12 to 46%, and the age range from 1 to 3 years is the most affected [7,10,11,15,19,20]. The multivariate analysis used in this study showed that the prevalence of dental caries increased significantly by 45%, which is higher than the value found in the study carried out in João Pessoa (Brazil), Piracicaba (Brazil) and Salvador (Brazil) (43.7%, 23.6% and 17.6%) respectively [7,10,29].…”