Manjunath P Puranik, S S Hiremath

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Understanding risk factors for early childhood caries (ECC) is necessary to the implementation of preventive and restorative measures. Objective: To determine the factors associated with developmental defects of enamel and early childhood caries among Anganwadi children in Bangalore District.Materials and Methods: A longitudinal study recruited 200 mother-child pairs in Anganwadis in Bangalore District. Sociodemographic information, maternal and feeding factors were collected from the mothers through interview. The children underwent dental examination and the developmental defects of enamel and caries were assessed using WHO criteria. Results: Majority of the participants were aged 20-24 years at the time of delivery, reported normal and full term delivery with normal weight children. About 30(15%) children had caries experience(Mean caries experience: 0.64±1.64). Twenty two (11%) participants had developmental defects of enamel. There was no statistically significant association between developmental defects of enamel and birthweight [OR= 0.875 (95% CI 0.1856-4.1256)]type of feeding practices [OR= 0.4466 (95% CI 0.1717-1.1618)] duration of breast feeding [OR= 1.4583 (95% CI 0.5622-3.7829)] whereas statistically significant association was observed between developmental defects of enamel and dental caries [OR=2.786 (95% CI 1.003-7.7382)]. Conclusions: There was an association between developmental defects of enamel and early childhood caries among Anganwadi children in Bangalore District. There is need to institute strategies for the prevention of developmental defects of enamel and ECC considering its prevalence.