Influence of Tooth Brushing and Previous Dental Visits on Dental Caries Status among Saudi Arabian Children

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the dental caries status and its association with tooth brushing frequency and previous dental visits among Arabian children. Methods: Arabian school children attend a specialty pediatric dental clinic at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia. Only children of Saudi origin with primary dentition were included in the study, and only one examiner was involved in the assessment and data collection. The parents of children completed a questionnaire to investigate possible explanatory variables for caries status, including tooth brushing frequency and previous dental visits. Dental caries were diagnosed according to the criteria recommended by the World Health Organization (2013). The comparison performed was based on sex, age, tooth brushing frequency, and previous dental visits. The descriptive statistics were carried out using SPSS (version 21.0) with a p-value of <0.05 significance. Results: The study involved 268 Saudi children with a mean age of 4.6 ± 1.1 years. The caries prevalence was 78.8%, and the mean dmft was 5.82 ± 4.48, while the overall mean scores for decayed, missing, and filled were 3.903 ± 3.69, 1.18 ± 1.69, and 0.73 ± 1.35, respectively. The mean dmft scores for the <3 years, 3.1–6 years, and >6 years old children were found to be 1.74, 6.58, and 4.58, respectively. Among the children, the females reported higher dmf scores (7.51 ± 4.18) compared to males (4.97 ± 4.39) with a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001). Fifty percent of the children had tooth brushing habits of once daily, followed by never (22.4%), twice daily (15.7%), and rarely (11.2%) brushed their teeth. Statistically significant correlations were found between the children’s dental caries status, age, and dental visits, while sex and tooth brushing did not find a correlation. Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries among Arabian preschool children was higher. Mandibular second molars were commonly affected by dental caries, while mandibular central incisors were less frequently affected. The child’s age and frequency of dental checkups were positively related to the prevalence of dental caries.

“Prevalence of Dental Caries and Dietary Determinants among 12–16 Years Old Students, a Cross-Sectional Study”

“…[35] also reported that students who had never brushed their teeth or done is so infrequently had scored higher DMFT results opposite to those who brushed their teeth at least once and more. Furthermore contrary to our results, other studies made by [36], observed no correlation between caries and frequency of tooth brushing. This might be related to improper technique of brushing and not enough tooth brushing time and low level of fluoride in toothpaste.…”

“…33%) and 67 of them used to have dental visits only if necessary (55. 83%) there is a positive significant correlation between this category and DMFT increase, our results are in accordance with previous researches from [33,36] which reported a positive link between dental visits and caries.…”

Early childhood caries risk indicators among preschool children in rural Egypt: a case control study

“…In the current study, age was significantly associated with ECC, where older children had higher odds of having ECC. This agrees with several previous research [ 3 , 22 , 23 ], which could be attributed to the increasing number of erupted primary teeth, and teeth becoming more exposed to the oral environment and various cariogenic challenges. Study findings revealed that mother’s education was significantly associated with ECC, and father’s employment status was not associated with the presence of ECC.…”

“…The study investigated a number of oral health habits. Among them, toothbrushing was not significantly associated with the presence of ECC, this finding agrees with Mallineni et al [ 23 ]. This may be due to the fact that preschool children may lack the manual dexterity required to remove dental plaque and maintain good oral hygiene, therefore, no difference was found regarding ECC between children who brushed their teeth and those who did not.…”

Peningkatan Pengetahuan Kesehatan Gigi Dan Mulut, Dengan Kegiatan Promotif Dan Preventif Di SDN Pekauman 2 Martapura

“…Melalui demonstrasi, peserta dapat memahami secara praktis bagaimana menyikat gigi dengan benar. Ini membantu dalam memperkuat pemahaman mereka tentang pentingnya teknik yang benar dalam menjaga kebersihan gigi dan gusi (Failasufa, Fahrie and Arimbi, 2021;Hidayat et al, 2023;Mallineni et al, 2023;Oresti and Handiny, 2023;Utami et al, 2023).…”