Dietary Pattern, Tooth Brushing Habits and Caries Experience of School Children in Panchkula District, India

Aims and objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the original dietary pattern, tooth brushing habit and oral health of the school children of India in 2013. Material and methods: This study was conducted in different Government and Non Government School’s of Panchkula, Haryana, India in 2013. The original sample consisted of 296 children between 10-15 years age groups. A Performa was prepared to collect the data about the oral health status of the subjects and NMES food consumption by the subjects. The samples were examined using a plane mouth mirror and CPI probe where necessary according to WHO caries diagnostic criteria (World Health Organization, 1993). To record the caries experience decayed, missing, filled (DMF) caries index was used. ANOVA, Chi square and Multiple Regression Analysis were done by using SPSS software. Results: A significant relationship was found between caries and NMES food or drinks, bed time NMES consumption frequency. It shows that caries experience tend to increase with consumption of NMES food and drinks. Significantly less caries was associated with the reported moderate consumption of dairy products by the children but this association as only for frequency less than 2 times daily. Multiple Regression Analysis revealed that the best predictors for DMFT scores were dairy products consumption frequency, which provided a variance of 24.8% in DMFT. Conclusion: The reported consumption of NMES food; drinks and lack of regular tooth brushing were found to be the factors most strongly linked to caries.