Abstract
Recently, the daily environment for children in Japan has been changing because of the significantly declining birthrate. The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual conditions of new child patients visiting the pediatric dentistry department of two different college hospitals as well as regional differences. The subjects were children under 16 years old who visited the Pediatric Dentistry Department of Tokyo Dental College Suidobashi Hospital (hereafter “Suidobashi”) or the Chiba Dental Center (hereafter “Chiba”) from 2016 to 2018. The number of new patients, age at first consultation, chief complaint and status of dental caries were determined, with the following results.
1.The number of new patients under 16 years old was 2,538 at Suidobashi, and 2,850 at Chiba. The number has been increasing annually at Suidobashi, while it has been decreasing at Chiba.
2.At both hospitals, dental caries was the most common chief complaint of new patients (Suidobashi: 40.0%, Chiba: 39.6%), followed by malocclusion (Suidobashi: 19.3%, Chiba: 18.3%). When divided by age, the maximum number of patients primarily affected by dental caries was found in the 2-year-old group at Suidobashi and in the 4-year-old group at Chiba.
3.The highest caries prevalence rate in deciduous dentition was shown in 4-year-old patients (70.2%) at Suidobashi, and 3-year-old patients (56.6%) at Chiba.
4.As for df index, the highest values at both hospitals were seen in patients aged 4 years (Suidobashi: 40.7%, Chiba: 43.5%).
5.Among younger children, there were more patients with severe dental caries at Suidobashi than at Chiba.
