[Caries prevalence in preschool children with overweight and obesity]

The diet with high and frequent carbohydrates consumption specially between meals increases the risk of nutritional diseases and dental decay. Also, in Mexico in the last years the changes in feeding patterns have increased the cases augmented of overweight and obesity in children, so the aim of the present study was to determine if dental decay is associated to overweight and obesity in preschool children from Mexico City.

A comparative cross-sectional study was carried out in 189 children aged of 3 to 6 years old, selected by convenience from Iztapalapa's area of Mexico City. According the body mass index (BMI) the children were qualified in three groups: 63 with normal weight, 63 with overweight and 63 with obesity. The clinical examination was performance by one observer. There were registered dmf-t, dmf-s indexes and the index of dental plaque of O'Leary. The chi2 and ANOVA tests were applied to compare among the groups, and odds ratio to estimate association. RESULTS. Caries prevalence was of 77% for the children with normal weight, 84% for those with overweight and 79% for the obese group. There was not association between caries with overweight, neither obesity, with exception for the obese girls who presented a higher affectation of dental decay in comparison with the obese boys(OR = 4.24; IC95%: 1.04-17.31, p < 0.05). In the overweight group, those children with poor hygienic habits showed more dental caries (OR = 7.83; IC95%: 1.74-35.21 p = 0.003).

A high prevalence on dental caries was observed in preschool children, nevertheless, overweight and obesity did not correlate with to dental decay.