title: The effect of dental rehabilitation on the body weight of children with early childhood caries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of comprehensive dental rehabilitation on the percentile weight and percentile growth velocity of children with early childhood caries (ECC).
  
  
  METHODS
  The percentile weight categories of children with noncontributory medical histories and ECC were compared to caries free comparison patients, before and after comprehensive dental treatment under general anesthesia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prior to dental rehabilitation, test subjects' percentile weight categories were significantly less than that of comparison counterparts (P < 0.001). Of the ECC patients, 13.7% weighed less than 80% of their ideal weight, thereby satisfying one of the criteria for the designation of failure to thrive, while none of the comparison patients did so (P < 0.05). Following therapeutic intervention, ECC children exhibited significantly increased growth velocities through the course of the follow-up period (P < 0.001), reflecting the phenomenon of catch up growth. The average length of follow-up for the test and comparison groups were 1.58 and 1.36 years, respectively. At the end of the follow-up period there were no longer any statistically significant differences noted in the percentile weight categories of the test and comparison groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comprehensive dental rehabilitation resulted in catch-up growth, such that children with a history of nursing caries no longer differed in percentile weights from comparison patients.
authors: Department of Dentistry, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Acs
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Shulman
authors: M W
authors: MW
authors: Ng
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Chussid
mesh_terms: D001835:Body Weight; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004219:District of Columbia; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006128:Growth; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous