the prevalence of early dental caries and its contributing factors among 3-6-year-old children in varamin/iran

background: early dental caries in childhood is one of the health problems. this survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of dental caries and its contributing factors among 3-6 year old children in varamin, iran kindergartens. methods: in this cross-sectional study, 838 children aged 3-6 years from varamin kindergartens were selected by census and examined for dental caries using who criteria. variables including age, gender and the location of kindergarten were recorded in a check list. the socioeconomic state of kindergartens’ locations, were classified as  high, moderate and low level by the consensus of 5 informative natives and governmental experts. data were analyzed using kappa, mann-whitney u, chi-square, kruskull wallis, and spearman's correlation coefficient. results: the mean score of dmft index (decayed/ missed/ filled tooth) in the studied children was 3.99±4.30 and 28.2% of children were caries free. dmft score showed a significant direct relationship with age. children in rural areas had significant higher mean dmft score compared to children in urban areas (p=0.056). there was no significant statistical difference between dmft and gender or socioeconomic status of the location of kindergartens. conclusion: the results indicate a high prevalence of early dental caries in varamin children. therefore, particular emphasis should be placed on educational and interventional programs, especially for mothers and kindergarten nurses and trainers.