Relationship of dental caries and BMI among pre-school children of Bangalore city, India: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Dental caries in young children is commonly untreated representing a public health problem and has also reported to affect their anthropometric outcomes, but the evidence is conflicting. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between dental caries and BMI in pre-school children of Bangalore City.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 208 healthy preschool children with the age range of 3-5 years recruited from nursery schools of Bangalore City. The Anthropometric measurements, weight and height were evaluated by calculating the z-scores using WHO Anthro software to elucidate the subject’s status on the age- and sex-specific growth chart. Every Child who has received two Z-scores under the normal value (