The Relationship of Severe Early Childhood Caries and Body Mass Index in a Group of 3- to 6-year-old Children in Shiraz

Statement of problem: early childhood caries can cause pain, discomfort and also inability to have a healthy nutrition. malnutrition can be characterized when there is a weight, height, and body mass index (bmi) deficiency. purpose: the aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the severe early childhood caries (based on the dmft index) and bmi in pre-school children in shiraz. materials and method: a descriptive analytical cross-sectional study was enrolled on 202 healthy preschool children with the age range of 3-6 years recruited from the kindergartens of different socio- economical parts of shiraz, iran. the anthropometric measurements, weight and height were evaluated. the z-scores were calculated employing who anthro software (www.who.int/childgrowth/software/en/ index.html) to elucidate the subject’s status on the age- and sex-specific growth chart. every child who has received two z-scores under the normal value (< -2) was considered as abnormal. the relationship between dmft index and bmi was then investigated. results: the mean of dmft was 4.13. from children with severe early childhood caries,12.5% were under weight, 5% had height deficiency and 19.5% had bmi deficiency, however, there was no significant relationship between increasing dmft and the height, weight and bmi deficiency. conclusion: there was not a linear correlation between severe early childhood caries and bmi, height, and weight deficiency. an incidence of 55% was yielded for severe early childhood caries which was an additional finding of this study.