Abstract
The actual state of nutrition and dental caries in young patients from 3 to 5 years of age at a dental clinic employing a nutritionist, in Ohmiya, a mediumsized city close to Tokyo, was investigated. The main materials used for analysis in this study were the diet records of what each patients had eaten over a three day period.
Of the 96 patients (male: 46, female: 50) investigated during the course of this study from April 1984 to March 1986,90 had dental caries. This constituted 93.8% of the total. Using the ministry of Health's criteria which indicates the degree of severity of dental caries,78 patients,81.3% of the total were placed in the severe category of class B and C. Compared to the average recomended intake of variouls types of food suggested by KAGAWA, it was found that the general balance and variety of food in meals in all of the cases was poor as eight out of 11 types of food were taken in an insufficient quantity and two types of food including sugar exceeded the suggested level. The intake quantity of sugar increased according to the severity of dental caries from class O to C. In class C, especially, the general balance, quantity and variation of food was extremely poor, with only one out of the 11 types of food on KAGAWA's list being taken in a sufficient quantity. Compared to the guidelines on nutrition issued by the ministry of Health in 1984, it was found that the general balance of nutrition in the patient's diet in our total was comparatively poor with the result that while the quantity of calcium and vitamins was large, energy, iron and protein were insufficient. The quantity of iron decreased corresponding to the severity of dental caries, although this was not conormed statistically. On average they took 20.3different kinds of food a day. It decreased slightly corresponding to the severity of dental caries. There was no significant relationship between the severity of dental caries and other categories: the energy pattern among protein, fat and carbohydrate, the ration of animal protein to vegetable protein, the number of smacks for a day, and the ratio of smacks to main meals in quantity.
