ABSTRACT
Objective: To study the relationship between primary tooth discoloration and caries in preschool children. Methods: 675 preschool children enrolled from 5 preschools in Suzhou City, China were examined for dental caries and tooth surface stain. Parents completed the questionnaires about their children's eating habit and living habit. The relationship between primary tooth discoloration and caries was analyzed with the respect to diet, hygiene, and the use of medicine or medical supplements. Results: Of the 675 children, 117(17. 3％; 52 boys and 65 girls) had tooth discoloration with no significant differences between gender(P＞ 0. 05). In the 117 children with tooth discoloration, 36(30. 8％) had dental caries, and in the 558 children without tooth discoloration 325 had caries (58. 2％, between the 2 groups, P＜ 0. 05). The incidence of discoloration was related with the frequency of consuming pigmented foods, vegetable and Chinese herbal medicines(P＜ 0. 05). The frequency of brushing teeth, use of water purifier and the water intake quantity were not significantly associated with discoloration of the teeth(P＞ 0. 05). Conclusion: The discoloration of primary teeth was negatively correlated with caries in primary teeth. Intake of pigmented food and medicine, vegetable and Chinese herbal medicine is related to tooth discoloration in preschool children.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the prevalence of primary teeth caries and oral hygiene status of preschool children in Kunming.Methods 6958 children aged 3-5 years from 30 kindergartens in Kunming were randomly selected for this study.The reserch of caries prevalence rate and soft dirt were investigated.Results The caries prevalence rate and the mean decayed,missing and filled teeth (XDMFT) values in primary teeth were 58.68％and 2.61 respectively.We can see the difference of significant between Dental caries prevalence and mean debris index simplified ( DI - S) scores between age groups, and there was no statistical significance of the same index between sex. There was no correlation between the investigation of dental caries and oral hygiene status. Conclusion The caries prevalence rate in 3-5 year-old children in the downtown area of Kunming city is very high,pointing out that preventive treatment against primary teeth caries should be strengthened.