A Study on Nutritional Status and Dental Caries in Permanent Teeth among School Going Girl of Bengalee Population, India

Abstract

Variations in tooth eruption patterns are supposed to have multifactorial reasons and etiologic factors to explain variation in caries are unsatisfactory. Prevalence of caries is comparatively higher in the children of developing countries than that of the children of same age in developed countries. Indian studies on the dental caries mostly in children related to prevalence and treatment. However, nutritional effect on dental caries on Indian school going children is yet to be carried out in eastern India. This study investigated the prevalence of dental caries in permanent teeth and nutritional status among the 544 School going children (girls) of 6 - 19 years age group of Bengalee ethnicity of West Bengal, India. Caries was recorded based on DMFT index following basic guidelines for Oral Health Surveys guideline (WHO). Nutritional status was obtained using BMI and classification of nutritional status was achieved using the standards of WHO and CDC growth charts include an age- and sex-specific BMI reference for children aged 2 - 20 year. The overall prevalence of dental caries was 44.5% and mean DMFT was 0.45 ? 1.57. Nutritional status demonstrated, about 30% and 6.69% of schools going girls were underweight and overweight respectively. Occurrence of dental caries was found in all permanent teeth among the girls of underweight and normal according to their BMI-for age status. Furthermore, a significant association (p < 0.05) with occurrence of dental caries among the underweight girls has been found compared to that of the overweight and normal. This study indicates a close relationship between nutritional status and dental caries in this region.