Usage of the Clinical Examination of Children and their Mothers to Assess Risk of Dental Caries at Children up to Three Years of Age

Early childhood caries poses a very difficult treatment problem for pediatric dentistry. In Poland, a frequency of caries in children aged three years and under has always been higher than in Western European countries. Nation wide epidemiological studies performed in 1992/93 showed caries to occur in 14.1% of children aged 3 years and under, and in 36-month-old children caries prevalence reached 48.65, i.e. nearly every second 3-year-old child had dental caries. The first cavities were already found in children under one year old (1, 2).

In 1975 Martheler described the phenomenon of „polarization” of caries in small children, which means that there is a noticeable difference in dental health between children with and without caries (3). In Poland in the former group, it is mainly early childhood caries (ECC) which is observed, characterized by a marked severity of the disease process and high caries increment.

Polarization can also be observed in other countries such as Bulgaria (4), and in countries with a lower fre- quency of caries (Scandinavian countries) (3).

Caries in young children is therefore a problem, even in highly developed countries.

The treatment of children with ECC is difficult and costly, and often requires to be performed under general anesthesia. Postponement or lack of treatment quickly leads to complications and has an unfavorable effect on both the future state of dentition and the general development of the child (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

Numerous authors have addressed the problem of the significance of the prevention of early caries, both at an individual and a population level, and its medical and financial implications (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20).

A main role in the assessment of caries risk is played by evaluation of dental health, taking in to consideration in particular the number of cavities, as well as the number of teeth (surfaces) restored and extracted due to complication of caries.

A number of authors have underlined the usefulness of a clinical dental examination in determining the risk of future caries in children (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27). According to some reports, of greater significance in determining caries risk is the number of initial and superficial caries lesions (22, 28).

More recently, authors have drawn attention to a problem of infection of child´s oral cavity with maternal oral bacteria (10, 29). Mother´s dental health therefore influences the occurrence of early childhood caries, as has been underlined by many authors (30, 31, 32).

This publication is a part of a larger Project concerning determination of caries risk in children aged 3 years and under using questionnaires and clinical and bacteriological examinations.

The aim of the present paper is to determine the efficacy of clinical examination of one-year-old children and their mothers in determining the risk for caries over the next two years.

The study material comprised of 122 children be- tween the ages of 12 and 15 months, and 120 mothers. The group of children included 64 boys and 58 girls (Fig. 1).

Children and mothers were recruited for the study during routine inoculation visit at a regional children´s health clinic in the Żoliborz district of Warsaw.

The study design comprised of:

1. a baseline examination of one-year-old children and their mothers,

2. control examinations of the children every 6 months,

3. statistical analysis.

The baseline examination was performed at the Inoculation Centre at the Regional Children´s Health Clinic In Żoliborz, Warsaw, in separate office. An initial clinical examination of both mothers and children was performed using a dental mirror and probe, a portable air-syringe and a free-standing dental lamp (without the use of a dental unit).

1. the number of tooth surfaces with caries, extracted due to complication of caries and restored (DMFs),

2. the number of tooth surfaces with untreated caries (Ds).

1.

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