Abstract
ObjectivesThis study analysed if children of families in need of dental interventions can be identified by using the caries status of the first-born child as a predictor for caries in younger siblings of the same family.Material and methodsAll children aged 4 to 15 years, i.e. 13,596 children, visiting a compulsory school in the canton of Basel-Stadt, Switzerland, during the school year 2017/2018 were analysed. Total caries experience and untreated carious lesions at time of examination were recorded as well as a subset of socioeconomic factors such as gender, age, nationality, birth order and the family’s place of residence.ResultsA total of 6738 schoolchildren who had at least one sibling of school age could be included. Differences in caries experience and the presence of active carious lesions were found for age, nationality and place of residence but not for gender or birth order. Younger siblings had odds of having a history of caries 3.7 times higher (95% confidence interval: 3.0–4.4) and odds of having active carious lesions 3.5 times higher (95% confidence interval: 2.6–4.7) if the eldest child in the family already had caries.ConclusionCaries could be shown to be family-dependent. Younger siblings had a more than three-fold higher risk for caries if the first-born child already had carious lesions.Clinical relevanceBased on these results, the caries status of the first-born child could be used as a potential indicator to detect vulnerable families and to initiate targeted preventive measures.
Highlights
Dental caries is a multi-factorial and highly prevalent oral disease affecting both children and adults [1, 2]
Recent studies started to explore the association between birth order, i.e. the position of a child in the birth sequence of a family, and children’s oral health
During the school year 2017/2018, a total of 13,596 schoolchildren were examined during the mandatory dental examinations
Summary
Dental caries is a multi-factorial and highly prevalent oral disease affecting both children and adults [1, 2]. In Switzerland, caries prevention programs were initiated in the 1960s, and a reduction in dental caries could initially be observed [6,7,8]. An increase in caries in the primary dentition was noticed in Switzerland, which was thought to result mainly from increasing proportions of schoolchildren with a migrant background [6, 7]. In addition to a migrant background, the socioeconomic status, lifestyle factors, parental caring behaviours and caries in a sibling have been described as potential influencing factors for the caries prevalence in children [9,10,11,12]. Results are conflicting as an association between birth order and caries could be demonstrated in some of the studies only [13,14,15]
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