The Relationship Between DMFT with Dietary Habits and Body Mass Index in 4–6 YearOld Kindergarten Children in Ahvaz

Background and Objectives: Considering importance of food habits and possible roles of obesity in tooth decay, the present study was carried out to investigate relationships between dietary habits and body mass index (BMI) withtooth decay in 4–6 years old kindergartenchildrenin Ahwaz, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 359 children were selected randomly from 4–6 year-old children of both sexes from variousregions of Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, Iran. The project questionnaire includedgeneral and individual information such as gender, age, education and occupation of the parents, economic condition,informationon children andfrequency of feeds of 59 food itemsThe BMIcalculatedandDMFT(decayed, missing, filled surfaces teeth)and erosion were measured. The SPSS Software was used o analyze data. Results: Frequency and percentage of BMI were differentiated by lean children (37, 10%), normal weight children (269 children, 75%) and children with overweight and obesity (53 children, 15%).Dental caries werefound in 87.3 and erosions in 23.7%of the children.A significantlypositive correlation was seen between the dental caries index and the BMI (r=0.512, P<0.001) and dental erosion (r = 0.141, P = 0.007). Another significantlypositive correlation was observed between the erosion index and the dental caries index r = 0.367, P<0.001). However, a significantly negative correlation was reported between the erosion index and the serving sizes of meat and egg per month (r=-0.112, P = 0.034). A significantly positive correlation was seen between the erosionandconsumption of chips and puffs (r=0.151, P =0.004). Conclusions: Findings of this study have shown that the BMI increases dental caries and erosions.Dental erosion also relationship with increasing consumption of meat and eggs, and increased with the consumption of chips and puff. Dental erosion decreased with increasing mother’s age index. According to regression test, BMI had the highest correlation with DMFT index and according to the regression test; the variable DMFT had the highest correlation with the erosion index. With increasing BMI, the amount of dental erosion and dental caries index would increase. There was a significant relationship between the increase in consumption of Chocolatemilk, flavored milk and fats with increased risk of dental caries.