The Relationship of Severe Early Childhood Caries and Body Mass Index in a Group of 3- to 6-year-old Children in Shiraz

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Early childhood caries can cause pain, discomfort and also inability to have a healthy nutrition .Malnutrition can be characterized when there is a weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) deficiency. PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the severe early childhood caries (based on the dmft index) and BMI in pre-school children in Shiraz. MATERIALS AND METHOD A descriptive analytical cross-sectional study was enrolled on 202 healthy preschool children with the age range of 3-6 years recruited from the kindergartens of different socio- economical parts of Shiraz, Iran. The Anthropometric measurements, weight and height were evaluated. The Z-scores were calculated employing WHO Anthro software (www.who.int/childgrowth/software/en/ index.html) to elucidate the subject's status on the age- and sex-specific growth chart. Every Child who has received two Z-scores under the normal value (< -2) was considered as abnormal. The relationship between dmft index and BMI was then investigated. RESULTS The mean of dmft was 4.13. From children with severe early childhood caries, 12.5%were under weight, 5% had height deficiency and 19.5% had BMI deficiency, however, there was no significant relationship between increasing dmft and the height, weight and BMI deficiency. CONCLUSION There was not a linear correlation between severe early childhood caries and BMI, height, and weight deficiency. An incidence of 55% was yielded for severe early childhood caries which was an additional finding of this study.