Impact of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) on Dental Caries amongst Socially Handicapped Orphan Children and Children Living with Their Parents

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the IQ and dental caries status of socially deprived orphan children and compare with children living with their parents. Study design: For comparison, 100 children in age-group 7–11 years, were divided in two groups: 50 orphanage children (orphanage-group) and 50 school-going children living with their families were included (home group). Raven’s colored progressive matrices test was used to record the intelligence quotient (IQ) and dental caries status of children was recorded using dmft Index. Results: There was statistically significant difference between children with different levels of IQ for both the groups. However, the majority of children who belong to below average IQ score had higher dental caries. Conclusion: Children with better IQ had less dental caries. There was no difference in IQ and DMFT/dmft score between both the genders. The overall DMFT/dmft was high in children living with their parents when compared to orphanage children.