Epidemiological profile of early childhood caries in a sub-urban population in Nigeria

Abstract

Background The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence and severity of early childhood caries (ECC) in children 6–71-months; identify the teeth most at risk for ECC; and identify risk indicators associated with significant caries index (SiC) score in different age groups. Methods This was a cross-sectional study that collected data (using a household survey) on the ECC risk indicators (frequency of tooth brushing, consumption of refined carbohydrate in-between-meals, daily use of fluoridated toothpaste, and dental service utilization in the 12 months) in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. We computed the prevalence of ECC using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDASI (d1–6)) index; caries severity using the ICDAS-2(d1–2) and ICDAS-3(d3–6) for non-cavitated and cavitated lesions respectively, decayed missing, filled teeth (dmft), and surfaces (dmfs) and SiC indices; and caries complications using the pulp (p), ulceration (u), fistula (f) and abscesses (a) (pufa) index, for children 6–11-months-old, 12–23-months-old, 23–35-months-old, 35–47-months-old; 48–59-months-old and 60–71-months-old. The differences in the mean dmft, dmfs, pufa scores, and ICDAS 1, 2, and 3 scores, and proportion of children with each ECC risk indicator were computed. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify risk indicators for the ECC SiC index score for each age group. Results The prevalence of ECC was 4.7%: 2.9% had non-cavitated lesions and 2.8% had cavitated lesions. The mean (SD) dmft, dmfs and pufa scores were 0.13 (0.92), 0.24 (1.91) and 0.04 (0.46) respectively. The dmft and dmfs scores were highest among the 24–35-months-olds while the SiC score was highest among the 12–23-months-olds. There were no significant differences in dmft, dmfs, and pufa scores between the different age groups. Toothbrushing more than once a day was the only factor associated with the SiC score: it decreases the odds for the SiC score in children 48–59-months-old. The teeth worst affected by ECC were #85 and #61. Conclusion The prevalence, severity and risk indicator for ECC seems to differ for each age group. The granular details on the risk profile of children with ECC in this population with a low ECC prevalence and burden can allow for the planning of age-targeted interventions.

Associations between maternal mental health, child dental anxiety, and oral health of 6- to 12-year-olds in Nigeria

“…31 This may explain the low prevalence and severity of caries experience and gingivitis in the children studied. 32 Prior studies conducted in the same community also showed low caries prevalence in preschool 33 and school-aged children. 34 Third, we found no association between maternal mental health risk status, depressive symptoms, and the oral health of school-aged children in this study.…”

A Scoping Review of Early Childhood Caries Experience Assessment Tools Used for Studies in Nigeria

“…After reviewing titles and abstracts, and screening, 33 articles were eligible for full-text screening. On screening the full articles, 17 articles were excluded either because the data were not specific to the study group of interest or they were not specific to Nigeria, leaving 16 articles [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] for this review. Figure 1 shows the flow diagram of the publication screening process.…”

“…Two (12.5%) studies analysed urban and rural differences in the prevalence of ECC [22,35]. Table 1 shows that the 16 extracted articles were conducted among preschool children in the south-west geopolitical zone of Nigeria: seven (43.8%) in Ile-Ife [20,23,25,28,[30][31][32], seven (43.8%) in Lagos [21,24,27,29,34,35], one (6.2%) in Enugu [26], and one (6.2%) in Benin [33]. Two (12.5%) studies analysed urban and rural differences in the prevalence of ECC [22,35].…”

“…Four (25.0%) of the studies were hospital-based [21,28,33,35], one (6.2%) was schoolbased [21], and 11 (68.8%) were population-based [20,[22][23][24][25]27,[29][30][31][32]35]. All the studies were cross-sectional, and all but two [20,31] assessed ECC at the cavitated level.…”

Salivary Buffering Capacity, Flow Rate and Calcium Levels in Children with and without Early Childhood Caries – a Comparative Study

“…Early Childhood Caries (ECC) as defined by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry is the presence of one or more decayed (non-cavitated or cavitated lesions), missing (due to caries), or filled tooth surfaces in any primary tooth in a child 71 months of age or younger. 1 Prevalence of ECC in Nigeria varies from 4.7% -21.2%; 2,3 and the reported prevalence in India and Italy was 44.4% and 19.0% respectively. 4,5 Due to its high prevalence, ECC is a disease of public health importance and a burden to the parents, community and clinician.…”