Feeding practices and early childhood caries among preschool children of Bhubaneswar, India.

PURPOSE: To assess the prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) in preschool children of Bhubaneswar city and to determine its relationship with feeding practices and socio-economic status of the family. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 320 preschool children aged 3 to 6 years from randomly selected preschools of Bhubaneswar. A structured questionnaire was filled by parents for each child. Clinical examination included the recording of dental caries (dmft) using WHO criteria. Chi-square test and ANOVA with post hoc Bonferroni were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Mean age of the study population was 4.26 +/- 1.035 years. Prevalence of ECC was 37.2%, and the mean dmft was 2.40 +/- 1.86. Children whose mother had no schooling (61.1%) and belonged to middle class (38.2%) showed higher caries prevalence which was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Children who were bottle fed at night and consumed in between meal snacks had higher caries (53.6% and 43.1%, respectively) which was significant. CONCLUSIONS: ECC is a serious public health problem in this population that requires considerable efforts of early detection and treatment along with successful preventive strategies to decrease the same.