Nutritional status and dental caries of schoolchildren from Sobral - Ceará

Bianca Dutra Aguiar,Ana Karine Macedo Teixeira,Maria Ester Frota Fernandes,Denise Sousa Aragão Torquato,Maria Helena Ramos De Aguiar,Emanuela Catunda Peres

doi:10.1590/1981-86372019000493499

Bianca Dutra Aguiar, Ana Karine Macedo Teixeira + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1981-86372019000493499

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: To examine the relationship between nutritional status and dental caries of schoolchildren from Sobral, Ceará, Braszil. Methods: Dental health and nutritional status of 92 children studying in two different schools and aging 5 years old were evaluated. The nutritional status was evaluated using the Body Mass Index (BMI), and the dental health status was evaluated using the Decayed, Missing, and Filling Tooth Index (DMFT-index). An interview with the parents of the children was also performed to investigate the socioeconomic profile and nutritional habits of the children. Results: A DMFT-index of 1.97 was found, and 39.6% of the childrenpresented overweight. Higher prevalence of dental caries was associated with low income, public schools, and less schooled parents. The variable overweight presented the inverse situation found for dental caries. Moreover, it was observed lower prevalence of caries in overweight children. Conclusion: Dental caries and nutritional status exhibited different behaviors in the population studied, which were driven by the sociodemographic profile of the family.

Highlights

Dental caries is a multifactorial infectious disease highly associated with the intake of fermentable carbohydrates, mainly sucrose
Our study focuses on the results of the epidemiological survey of nutritional and dental health status
Our study showed that dental caries is associated with worse scenarios of sociodemographic variables, whereas overweight presented the inverse behavior

Summary

Introduction

Dental caries is a multifactorial infectious disease highly associated with the intake of fermentable carbohydrates, mainly sucrose. Sucrose is a widely consumed sugar, and it presents the greatest cariogenic potential when compared to other dietary carbohydrates. During the past few years, a change has been observed in the pattern of caries disease occurrence in the world, mainly in the children population. Caries presented a declining tendency during the last decades of the XX century and first years of the XXI century [2]. The same pattern was observed in Brazil. This pattern was heterogeneous, given that different prevalence was found when comparing different populational groups [3]

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Discussion

Conclusion