Prevalence and factors related to dental caries among pre-school children of Saddar town, Karachi, Pakistan: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundDental caries is highly prevalent and a significant public health problem among children throughout the world. Epidemiological data regarding prevalence of dental caries amongst Pakistani pre-school children is very limited. The objective of this study is to determine the frequency of dental caries among pre-school children of Saddar Town, Karachi, Pakistan and the factors related to caries.MethodsA cross-sectional study of 1000 preschool children was conducted in Saddar town, Karachi. Two-stage cluster sampling was used to select the sample. At first stage, eight clusters were selected randomly from total 11 clusters. In second stage, from the eight selected clusters, preschools were identified and children between 3- to 6-years age group were assessed for dental caries.ResultsCaries prevalence was 51% with a mean dmft score being 2.08 (±2.97) of which decayed teeth constituted 1.95. The mean dmft of males was 2.3 (±3.08) and of females was 1.90 (±2.90). The mean dmft of 3, 4, 5 and 6- year olds was 1.65, 2.11, 2.16 and 3.11 respectively. A significant association was found between dental caries and following variables: age group of 4-years (p-value ² 0.029, RR = 1.248, 95% Bias corrected CI 0.029-0.437) and 5-years (p-value ² 0.009, RR = 1.545, 95% Bias corrected CI 0.047-0.739), presence of dental plaque (p-value ² 0.003, RR = 0.744, 95% Bias corrected CI (−0.433)-(−0.169)), poor oral hygiene (p-value ² 0.000, RR = 0.661, 95% Bias corrected CI (−0.532)-(−0.284)), as well as consumption of non-sweetened milk (p-value ² 0.049, RR = 1.232, 95% Bias corrected CI 0.061-0.367).ConclusionHalf of the preschoolers had dental caries coupled with a high prevalence of unmet dental treatment needs. Association between caries experience and age of child, consumption of non-sweetened milk, dental plaque and poor oral hygiene had been established.

Prevalence of Early Childhood Caries and associated Risk Factors from 1 to 12 years Old Children

“…In a study from sadder town Karachi, Pakistan it is 51 % in 2012. In this study, bad oral hygiene and tooth brushing habit was studied [18]. Another study from Karachi shows that ECC rate is 29.1% only, in this study socioeconomic aspect of ECC is discussed and reported that there was an inverse relation between dental caries and family income [13].…”

“…Available data on dental caries reveal that Pakistan has been classified as a low caries country, on the positive side 50% of the children between the ages of 12-15 years are caries free and on the negative side 97% of all carious lesions remained untreated [13,19]. In Karachi (city of Pakistan) ECC prevalence is 51 percent in the year of 2002 as well as in 2012 [18] Prevalence of caries is 60.90% in Lahore [20]. Peshawar is high incidence of ECC in 2015 it is 88.6% which is very high as compared with others [19].…”

Correlation of Dental Caries, Total Proteins, Total Antioxidant Capacity, Immunoglobulin A and G in Children At The Age from 4-6 Years

“…The descriptive statistics of the values of the dmft by tooth surfaces in children, with primary dentition varies in the interval 6,60±3,13in which the minimal value is 2 and the maximum value is 16. The values of the components of the dmft index according to teeth surfaces, for dental caries, vary in the interval 4,63±2,79, in which the maximum value is 12 carious surfaces opposed to the teeth with dental fillings, according to surfaces, which had less and vary in the interval 1,63±2,36, with a maximum of 9 surfaces.…”

Prediction of Primary and Permanent Dental Caries Using Age and Body Mass Index

“…Dental caries is a biofilm-mediated, sugar-driven, multifactorial, dynamic disease that results in the phasic demineralization and remineralization of dental hard tissues [1] population of several countries is suffering from this problem, children and adults both are found at risk with this disease, a study was conducted in Saudi Arabia among school going children reports 68.9% children were getting effected with this problem [2], another study form Bangalore reports 65.7% prevalence among school going children aged 3-5 years old [3], one more study from India gives 36.5% prevalence of dental caries [4], in Pakistan it was found 51% [5].…”