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Dental caries in one- and two-year-old children living in Sweden. Part I--A longitudinal study
L K Wendt1, A L Hallonsten, G Koch
1Department of Preventive Dental Care, County of Jönköping.
Insights
Dental caries affects young children, with prevalence increasing from 0.5% at age one to 7.7% at age two. Early childhood caries, particularly in immigrant children, requires urgent preventive strategies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Dentistry
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Limited epidemiological data exists on early childhood caries.
- Dental caries can manifest in infants and toddlers.
- Understanding prevalence in very young children is crucial for intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of dental caries in 1- and 2-year-old children.
- To identify early patterns of caries development in infants and toddlers.
- To compare caries prevalence between immigrant and non-immigrant children.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study involving dental examinations of 632 one-year-olds and 326 of those children one year later.
- Caries prevalence and mean decayed surfaces were recorded.
- Statistical analysis compared caries rates between immigrant and non-immigrant groups.
Main Results:
- Caries prevalence was 0.5% at age one and 7.7% at age two.
- Two-year-olds with caries had an average of 6.3 decayed surfaces.
- Immigrant 2-year-olds showed significantly higher caries prevalence (22.2%) than non-immigrants (4.5%).
Conclusions:
- Early childhood caries is a significant issue, detectable as early as one and two years of age.
- Immigrant children represent a vulnerable group for early caries development.
- Urgent research into predisposing factors and preventive measures for early caries is needed.
Abstract:
There are few epidemiological studies on caries prevalence in young children. The aim of this study was to describe the caries prevalence in 1- and 2-year-old children. All 1-year-old children, living within the area of four child welfare centres, were invited to participate. 632 children out of 671 invited were examined for dental caries. Among the children examined 120 (19%) were immigrants. One year later 326 of the 632 previous examined children were selected for a second examination of dental caries. Fifty-four children (18.1%) were immigrants. At the age of one and two years 0.5 and 7.7 per cent respectively of the children had caries. In 2-year-old children with caries the mean number of decayed tooth surfaces was 6.3. About fifty-two per cent of this group of children were immigrants. In 2-year-old immigrants 22.2 per cent had caries compared to 4.5 per cent in non-immigrant children (p less than 0.001). This study shows that, as early as at one and two year of age, a group of children have developed a number of carious lesions. Further studies in infants on predisposing factors related to early caries activity are urgent in order to find measures for effective preventive care.