Maternal Common Mental Disorders symptoms influence associated with early childhood dental caries: A cross-sectional study in a southern Brazilian city.

BACKGROUND: Maternal mental problems can interfere with the overall health and care of the child; some oral health studies have been trying to elucidate whether there is a relationship between maternal common mental disorders (CMD) and children's oral health status. AIM: The aim was to investigate the influence of mothers that present CMD symptoms on their child's dental caries status. DESIGN: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Pelotas with 530 mother/child (aged 2-5 years old) dyads recruited from an epidemiological survey in August 2015 during the national vaccination campaign. A questionnaire was used to determine mother's CMD symptoms using the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) and socioeconomic/demographic variables which were used for adjustment. Dental caries examination was performed. The outcome was obtained using the dmfs (decayed, missing, filled surfaces) index, based on OMS guidelines. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to estimate the risk ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Maternal CMD was positively associated with dental caries prevalence in children; the adjusted relative risk for every 1 SRQ-20 score increase was 1.06 (95% CI 1.00-1.12). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that maternal mental health can impair children's oral health in relation to dental caries.

Is dental trauma more prevalent in maltreated children? A comparative Study in Southern Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Although a high prevalence of head and neck trauma has been reported in maltreated children and adolescents, most of these studies focused on record-based analyses, and only a few used control groups. AIM: To assess the presence of dental trauma in maltreated children in comparison with children without a history of maltreatment. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study with 68 maltreated children and 204 age, sex-, and school-matched control participants was conducted in Pelotas, a Southern Brazilian city. Socioeconomic and demographic data were collected. Clinical examinations were performed to evaluate dental trauma (O'Brien Index) and dental caries (WHO criteria). Fisher's exact and chi-squared tests were used for intergroup comparisons of socioeconomic and clinical variables. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to obtain adjusted odds ratios (OR). RESULTS: The prevalence of dental trauma was 23.53% (n = 16) among maltreated children and 14.22% (n = 29) in the comparative group. After adjustment, the occurrence of dental trauma showed association with child maltreatment, with an OR of 2.14 (95% confidence interval 1.03-4.44) for maltreated children in comparison with children in the comparative group (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Maltreated children presented with more dental trauma than those with no history of maltreatment.

Maternal Depression Increases Childhood Dental Caries: A Cohort Study in Brazil.

AIM: To investigate the relationship between maternal depression and childhood caries in a cohort of adolescent mothers. METHODS: This cross-sectional study nested in a cohort evaluated a sample of 538 mother/child dyads. When the children were 24-36 months of age, data regarding oral health from children and mothers were collected by clinical dental examination. A mother's major depressive disorder was assessed by using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI [Plus]), at the current moment. Independent variables were obtained by using questionnaires. The outcome on dental caries experience was dichotomized by using 2 cut points: dmfs ≥1 and dmfs ≥3. Poisson regression analysis, using a hierarchical approach, was applied to assess the association between major depressive disorder in mothers with and those without caries experience and the outcome. RESULTS: The prevalence of dental caries in children was 15.1% (n = 82). The mean dmfs index was 1.12 (SD = 3.72). The prevalence of major depressive disorder was 32.6% (n = 168). An interaction between caries status and depressive disorder was found, and after adjusted analysis, children from mothers with major depressive disorder with negative caries experience presented a higher caries prevalence (prevalence ratio 4.00, 95% confidence interval 1.29-12.41). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that maternal psychiatric disorders could have a negative impact on children's oral health.