Abstract
Introduction: Diet is a deeply ingrained element of a person’s life. Children’s dietary habits are a significant contributor to obesity and dental caries. Dental caries during childhood continues to be a significant public health concern, while childhood obesity is increasingly being cited as a major public health problem. This study aimed to assess the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and dental caries in children aged three to 12 years who attended both government and private schools in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional review of 2200 children aged three to 12 years with clinically recorded dental caries. The World Health Organization diagnostic criteria for BMI percentile was used to evaluate and record dental caries clinically. The Mann-Whitney and the Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for univariate comparisons.Results: Mean values between the overweight category and underweight category revealed no significant differences.Conclusion: We found no association between BMI-for-age and dental caries in children in both primary and mixed dentition. This relationship should be investigated further by longitudinal studies.
Highlights
IntroductionChildren’s dietary habits are a significant contributor to obesity and dental caries
Diet is a deeply ingrained element of a person’s life
We found no association between body mass index (BMI)-for-age and dental caries in children in both primary and mixed dentition
Summary
Children’s dietary habits are a significant contributor to obesity and dental caries. Dental caries during childhood continues to be a significant public health concern, while childhood obesity is increasingly being cited as a major public health problem. Obesity and dental caries are multifactorial conditions, both having comprehensive etiology and factors such as dietary habits and available nutrients, oral hygiene, or saliva [1]. Studies have shown that excessive food intake or inadequate physical activity are underlying causes of obesity [2]. The interaction of genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors could lead to childhood obesity has been reported [3]. Changes in diet and lifestyle, such as an increase in wealth and access to carbohydrate-rich, high-calorie food and drinks could be attributed to the increase in the prevalence of both dental caries and obesity [4]. Several studies to date have evaluated the relationship between tooth
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