Early Childhood Caries Characteristics in Children with Negative and Positive Behavior

Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a crucial problem in many countries.

Aim: To study ECC characteristics in children with negative and positive behavior.

Methods: The study was organized in a pediatric dental clinic in 2017. The patients’ behavior during dental treatment was assessed according to Frankl`s Behavior Rating Scale as negative (“negative” or “definitely negative”) or positive (“positive” or “definitely positive”). Informed consents were obtained from the parents of 102 children with ECC aged 4-6 years. 51 of them had negative behavior (NB) and 51 had positive behavior (PB). Dental and x-ray examinations of the children were provided by an experienced dentist. Index dmft with standard error, proportions (%) of decayed (d), filled (f) and missing (m) teeth (in dmft-structure), proportions (%) of children with pulpitis, and relative risk (RR) of having pulpitis were calculated. The differences between the groups were assessed with Student-t criterion at pResults:Mean dmft was 6.65±0.24 in NB children and 3.71±0.18 in PB children, p<0,001. Proportions (in dmft-structure) of decayed teeth were 69.0% in NB group and 42.8% in PB group (d=4.59±0.20 and 1.59±0.09 respectively, p<0.001). Proportions of filled teeth were 23.9% and 56.1% (f=1.59±0.13 and 2.08±0.07, p<0.01), extracted teeth 7.1% and 1.1% (m=0.47±0.05 and 0.04±0.02, p<0.001) respectively. Pulpitis was diagnosed in 46 (90.2%) NB children and in 15 (29.4%) PB children, p

Conclusions: The children aged 4-6 years with ECC and negative behavior had significantly higher dmft, more untreated carious teeth and more pulpitis than the children with positive behavior. Relative risk of having pulpitis was significantly increased in the children with negative behavior compared to the children with positive behavior.