Correlation between dietary habits and dental caries prevalence among primary school children with different socioeconomic levels in Ismailia City.

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the correlation between dietary habits and caries prevalence among primary school children in Ismailia city.

A total of 2317 primary school children were included in this study, 646 children from private schools (high socioeconomic group) and 1671 from public schools (Low socioeconomic group), their age ranged from 6-11 years.

Those children were examined for dental caries, which was identified using (dmfs) index for primary teeth, and (DMFS) index for permenant teeth, and then diet history sheets were distributed among the examined children. From the charts, the number of sugary snacks/week were calculated then correlated to dental caries experience. The results of this study showed that the prevalence of dental caries increases with age, there is no significant difference in caries prevalence between boys and girls. Children of low socioeconomic level had more dental decay than children of high socioeconomic level of this study. In governmental schools the degree of compliance of returning filled charts was higher than that of private schools and girls showed a higher degree of compliance than boys.