1984 Volume 22 Issue 4 Pages 846-853
In order to know th relationship between the decrease in the prevalence of caries and the changes in daily habits, especially dietary habits in young infants, we conducted an investigation at the dental health examination of one and a half year old children at Nakahara Health Center in Kawasaki City in 1982. We compared the results of this survey with a similar one conducted 7 years ago in the same district.
The results obtained were as follows.
1. The caries prevalence rate decreased about 7 %, and mean decayed teeth pre child decreased about 0.3 teeth in these 7 years. In particular, the caries in cidence rate of labial surfaces of upper incisors decreased by half.
2. According to the questionnaires to the mothers in this survey, there was a significant difference in the finishing time of weaning and the nursing habits in bed between the decayed teeth group and the no decayed teeth group. However, there was little difference in the eating and drinking sweets between meals habits.
3. In the decayed group, there was about a 20 % decrease in the rate of children nursing in bed between this and the last surveys, but there was little difference in the no decayed group between the two surveys.
4. In the decayed group, the rate of children eating sweets between meals decreased by half, to the same rate as children in the no decayed group which had had little change in these 7 years.
5. From these two surveys, it is suggested that the main factors which contributed to caries reduction in labial surfaces of upper incisors were the continuation of breast feeding or using nursing bottles after 1 year, and especially the habits of nursing in bed, and of eating sweets between meals.
