title: [Dental caries and early childhood development: a pilot study].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the association between dental caries and early childhood development in 3-year-olds from Talca, Chile.
  
  
  METHODS
  A pilot study with a convenience sample of 3-year-olds from Talca (n = 39) who attend public healthcare centers. Child development was measured by the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI), a screening tool used nationally among pre-school children to assess language development, fine motor skills and coordination areas. Dental caries prevalence was evaluated by decayed, missing, filled teeth (DFMT) and decayed, missing, filled tooth surfaces (DFMS) ceo-d and ceo-s indexes. The children were divided into two groups according to the PDIscore: those with a score of 40 or more were considered developmentally normal (n = 32), and those with a score below 40 were considered as having impaired development (n = 7).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The severity of caries (DMFT) was negatively correlated with PDI (r = -0.82), and children with the lowest TEPSI score had the highest DFMT values. The average DMFT in children with normal development was 1.31, and 3.57 for those with impaired development.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This pilot study indicates that the severity of dental caries is correlated with early childhood development.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile. Electronic address: lnunezf@utalca.cl.
authors.forename: F Loreto
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Núñez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile.
authors.forename: B Javier
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Sanz
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Center for Population Oral Health (ARPOCH), University of Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: L Gloria
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Mejía
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002677:Chile / Q000453:epidemiology; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
keywords: Caries dental; Child development; Dental Caries; Growth; Pre-School; crecimiento; desarrollo infantil; preescolar