Body mass index of children with severe early childhood caries.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this retrospective case study was to describe the body mass index (BMI) of children with severe early childhood caries (5-ECC) receiving dental rehabilitation under general anesthesia.


METHODS
Demographics, BMI percentile, decoyed, missing, or filled teeth (dmft), and the number of pulp-involved teeth were analyzed for 293 healthy 2- to 5-year-olds (mean = 47.2 months). Weight groups were assigned using current Centers for Disease Control (CDC) BMI-for-age and gender definitions. Descriptive statistics were calculated and multivariate analysis used to evaluate BMI's association with oral health measures. BMI distribution of the subjects was compared graphically and with the use of confidence intervals to a reference population with similar demographics.


RESULTS
The distribution of subjects' BMI percentiles was: underweight=11l%; normal weight=67%; at risk for overweight=9%; and overweight=11%. The mean dmft was 11.8; BMI percentile did not correlate with dmft or the number of pulp-involved teeth. Significantly, more children in the sample were underweight than in the reference population (11% vs. 5%).


CONCLUSIONS
In this sample of S-ECC children, the BMI percentile was not correlated with dmft or the number of pulp-involved teeth, even After adjusting for confounding factors. Thirty-two percent had unhealthy weights, as currently defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sheller
Barbara
B
Center for Children with Special Needs and Children's Research Institute, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA. b.sheller@seattlechildrens.org
Churchill
Shervin S
SS
Williams
Bryan J
BJ
Davidson
Bo
B
D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000145:classification*; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000473:pathology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000145:classification; D011203:Poverty; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013851:Thinness / Q000145:classification