Evaluation of Association between Different Early Feeding Practices and Incidence of Early Childhood Caries

Abstract

Early childhood caries (ECC) is a serious oral health condition that affects a large number of young children. If untreated, ECC can lead to serious health problems, significant pain, interference with eating, overuse of the emergency room, and loss of school time. Severe ECC can also affect a child’s ability to eat and grow properly, speak and communicate with others. Several etiological factors play a significant role in the initiation and progression of the disease including children’s early feeding practices, dietary habits, level of awareness and practice of oral hygiene measures, socioeconomic status and maternal oral health,. Breastfeeding has long been accused of being the main cause of ECC; although the cariogenicity of human milk is still the subject of some controversy. Many studies examined the association between breastfeeding and ECC; however, their findings produced conflicting results. Subsequently, this study aimed to investigate the impact of breastfeeding and bottle feeding on the incidence of ECC and assess the acidogenic and cariogenic potential of different types of milk in terms of their effect on bacterial fermentation and growth, as well as their influence on enamel demineralization and remineralization in primary teeth. The current study was based on 2 main phases, in the first phase, 200 children were enrolled from the Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health Department clinic, Faculty of Dentistry, Ain Shams University. Subjects were recruited according to certain inclusion criteria and a written consent was signed by their parents before conducting the research. A questionnaire interview, with the children’s mothers, was done by one operator aiming at investigating the main risk factors related to ECC then children were clinically examined to assess their caries experience.