A Statistical Study on the Relationship between the Living Environment and Dental Caries in Childhood

Abstract

The prevalence of dental caries in children has recently declined statistically, but there are some children whose oral environment has deteriorated due to a large number of carious teeth. The polarization of children who have almost no dental caries has become a problem. Since the environment surrounding children is becoming more complicated due to the diversification of family structures, it is considered that dental caries in deciduous dentition is greatly affected by the environment because of children's difficulty in managing oral hygiene by themselves. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between the living environment of children and dental caries.

We included 475 subjects aged 3 to 5 years (mean age 4 years 4 months) with deciduous dentition, who visited our department for the first time between 2009 and 2016. In the survey on lifestyle, we investigated the living environment of children such as: “snack habits,” “home environment,” and “oral hygiene habits.” In addition, the experience of dental caries (decayed, missing, and filled; dmf tooth rate) was calculated based on the results of the oral examination, dental radiograph, and dental medical record. Furthermore, the relationship with the children's living environment was statistically examined.

As a result, it was revealed that dental caries in children correlated with their “snacking frequency,” “employment situation of their parents,” “order of birth,” “brushing status,” “toothbrushing frequency,” and “experience with topical fluoride application.” On the other hand, there were no significant differences in the prevalence of dental caries with regard to “living with grandparents” and “status of entering kindergarten.”

These results suggested that children's living environment and lifestyle may affect their oral environment.