Effect of untreated dental caries on school performance and social life

Abstract

Oral diseases are highly prevalent across the different countries globally, indicating that these conditions represent a significant challenge to the healthcare authorities. Moreover, like untreated dental caries, chronic diseases were linked with poor school performance and deteriorated quality of life. This current literature review aims to discuss the effect of untreated dental caries on school performance and social life. Our findings indicate the strong association between having untreated dental caries and reduced performance at school. We also found that these children usually suffer from deteriorated aspects of social life, being more prone to verbal bullying than other children without dental caries. Different factors were reported to affect the correlation between untreated dental caries and performance at school. For instance, socioeconomic status has a significant role in this association. Evidence also indicates the vital role of gender, family income, and parental education. These findings indicate the urgent need to draw proper interventional plans to reduce the risk of dental caries. Besides, healthcare authorities should plan for screening programs to detect children with untreated dental caries and provide adequate management of these conditions to enhance the quality of life and educational aspects. However, the findings are not consistent among the different investigations in the literature. Therefore, future studies are needed to validate the current evidence and enhance the outcomes.