Influence of Parental Socioeconomic Status on Caries Prevalence among Children Seen at the University College Hospital; Ibadan

ABSTRACT

Background: Dental caries is a lifetime disease and its sequelae have been found to constitute health problems of immense proportion in children. Environmental factors such as culture; socioeconomic status; lifestyle and dietary pattern can have a great impact on cariesresistance or caries-development in a child. Objective: The present study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between dental caries and socioeconomic status of children attending paediatric dental clinic in UCH Ibadan. Methods: Socio-demographic data for each child that attended paediatric dental clinic; UCH Ibadan within a period of one year was obtained and recorded as they presented in the dental clinic; followed by oral examination for each of them in the dental clinic to detect decayed; missing and filled deciduous and permanent teeth (dmft and DMFT respectively). Results: The mean dmft and DMFT score for the 209 children seen within period of study were 1.58 + 2.4 and 0.63+1.3 respectively. Highest caries prevalence (46.9) was found within the high social class while the caries prevalence in middle and low social class were 40.5 and 12.6 respectively. The highest dmft/DMFT of 7 was recorded in two children belonging to high social class. The difference in dmft in the three social classes was statistically significant (x 2 = 51.86;p= 0.008) but for DMFT; it was not statistically significant (x2 = 6.92; p = 0.991).Conclusion: Caries experience was directly related to socio-economic status of the parents of the studied children with highest caries prevalence in high and middle socioeconomic classes