Prevalence of dental caries and enamel defects in the primary dentition of Antiguan pre-school children aged 3-4 years including an assessment of their habits

ABSTRACT

In 1989 a national survey was carried out on children aged 3 to 4 years attending nursery schools, to investigate the prevalence of caries experience, nursing bottle caries and enamel defects in the primary dentition, and these children's dentally related habits. In the first part of the study, examination of 482 Antiguan children showed that the dmft and dmfs values were 0.80 and 1.26 respectively, and that 77 percent of the children were caries free; 4.6 percent of children had nursing bottle caries; and enamel defects occurred in 24 percent of children. No significant differences was found in oral health between urban and rural samples. In the second part, which was an interview survey, habits such as thumb sucking (13 percent), not brushing their teeth (3 percent), and swallowing fluoride toothpaste (13 percent) were found among 369 children. In the third (a questionnaire) survey, a response rate of 63 per cent was obtained. Significantly more of the children with nursing bottle caries (78.6 percent) had the habit of sleeping with a feeding bottle than occurred in caries free children (25.6 percent), but there was no difference in the infant feeding pattern. The children with enamel defects were breast fed for a shorter period and had an earlier introduction to bottle feeding, compared with children without enamel defects. In the final part of the survey, an assessment of snack eating habits at school, a 58 percent response rate was achieved. The majority of children often brought healthier snacks, together with daily sugar-rich drinks. Significantly more caries free children brought sugary snacks less frequently than children with caries experience. (AU)