RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SNACKING HABITS AND CARIES EXPERIENCE A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN EGYPTIAN AND Kuwaiti CHILDREN

Background: Dental caries is a chronic, multifactorial disease, with limited background data available for the Egyptian and Kuwaiti populations. Aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of dental caries among Egyptian and Kuwaiti children in correlation with snacking habits and oral hygiene measure.
Subjects and Methods: A total number of 360 Egyptian and kuwaiti children, each group comprised of 180 children (aged between 3-12 years)were examined over the period from 3rd August 2019 till 6th of October 2019.Demographic data, snacking habits and frequency of tooth brushing for children were recorded in a questionnaire. Dental status was analyzed using decayed, missing and filled index (dmf) for deciduous dentition and (DMF) index for permanent dentition. For mixed dentition (def ) index d(decayed),e (decayed tooth indicated for extraction) and f (filled tooth).
Results: Kuwaiti children who had unhealthy ,mixed snacks (healthy/Unhealthy), twice daily, at different time of the day (BL/LD) and brushing their teeth twice daily had a significantly higher value of DMF than the Egyptian children. Also, The Kuwaiti children had a significantly higher dmf score than the Egyptian children regarding healthy snacks, mixed snacks, twice daily, at different time of the day (BL/LD) and brushing their teeth twice daily. Finally, the Kuwaiti children showed higher statistically significant difference score of def regarding Unhealthy and twice daily snacks than the Egyptian children .
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Kuwaiti children have higher caries prevalence than Egyptian children.
Abbreviation :BL=Between breakfast and lunch / LD=Between Lunch and dinner / Healthy snacks=Fruits and Vegetables/Unhealthy snacks :snacks including candy, soft drinks, chocolates, jelly, ice cream, potato chips , cookies ./Mixed:(Healthy/Unhealthy snacks).