ABSTRACT
Humans need food to provide energy, growth and development of body. A standard dietary regimen can be established in childhood with satisfactory general and oral health. The purpose of this study was to analyze the food diet of Mashhad preschool children and its relationship to dental health status in 2005. In this descriptive study, 191 randomly selected children [boys and girls], aging 5 to 6 years old from Mashhad kindergartens were evaluated. A 3-day dietary history was recorded to assess children's diet and food guide pyramid was used for analysis, dmft index was also determined. Friedman, Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney and Wilcoxon tests and pearson correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis. The results of this study showed that 59.2%, 47.1%, 49.2%, 1.6% and 24.6% of children consumed recommended amount of meet and beans, fruits, dairy products, vegetables and grains respectively. The data revealed a sufficient consumption of meat and beans but the amount of vegetable consumption was very poor in study group [P<0.001]. Mean dmft index was 4.5 +/- 4.05 in study group. There was no relationship between each of five main dietary groups and dmft in this study, but there was a reverse correlation ship between the amount of protein and fat consumption with dmft index [P<0.05]. In this cross sectional study, there was a reverse relationship between the amount of fat and protein consumption with dmft index. Nutrition has a great effect on oral and dental health status in long time, so conducting longitudinal studies in this field is recommended