Relationship between Severe Early Childhood Caries and dental development.

AIM: Severe early childhood caries (sECC) is a public health problem that continues to affect infants and preschool children worldwide. Knowledge of the changes in dental development is important for paediatric dentists in order to determine a treatment plan. The aim of this study was to investigate dental development in children with sECC, compared to age and gender-matched controls, by calculating the dental age (DA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 300 children (144 females, 156 males) with sECC aged 5 years were studied and compared with 300 control subjects (caries-free), case-matched for gender and age. The dental development was assessed using the DA estimation method of Demirjian et al. [1973], and data were statistically analysed using a 2-sided t test and chi-squared test. RESULTS: The mean differences between the DA and chronological age (CA) in the sECC females and males were 0.67+/-0.6 years and 0.98+/-0.6 years, respectively, whereas the results of the case controls were 1.44+/-0.8 years for the females and 1.57+/-0.6 years for the males. The differences between the sECC and case control groups were significant for both genders (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Children with severe early childhood caries have lower rates of dental development when compared to normal children.