Assessing the prevalence of early childhood caries and the associated determinants in a group of preschool children: results from a national oral health survey in Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Lecturer, Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry , Ain Shams university, Cairo, Egypt, MPH, Imperial College London.

2 Dental Department Ministry of Health and Population, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Objective: This study provides information on the prevalence of early childhood caries among a sample of Egyptian Preschool children and the potential determinants associated with this condition.
Methods: A total of 651 preschool children were randomly selected from 160 gathering points in 26 governorates in Egypt. A face to face interview was conducted with children’s primary caregivers and data on socioeconomic status, oral hygiene practices and feeding habits was collected. Information on caries experience was also recorded through dental examination following a standardized clinical protocol based on World Health Organization measures.
Results: More than 67% of the examined children had at least one decayed primary tooth and the mean dmf score was 3.3. Girls had lower mean dmf scores in comparison to boys. A weak positive correlation was detected between dmf scores in children and maternal caries experience
(r = 0.130, P < 0.001) whereas the coorelation with frequency of tooth brushing was weak negative (r= -0.093, p<0.001).
Conclusions: Dental treatment needs among Egyptian preschool children are quite high and thus urging actions towards promoting oral health status of this population group need to be undertaken at community levels.

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