Prevalence of dental caries, gingival status, and enamel defect and its relation to nutritional status among kindergarten children in Sulaimani city

A sample of 914 children (421males and 49 females) aged 4 and 5 yers old Was randomly selected from different kindergarten in sulaimani city to determine the prevalence and severity of dental caries, gingivitis and enamel Defect in relation to nutritional status and to determine the relation of these oral variables to age , gender. The assessment of nutritional status was performed using anthropometric Measurement. Diagnosis and recording of dental caries and enamel defect were According to the criteria of WHO 1987 and 1997 respectively. Plaque index of Silness and LOe (1964) and calculus index of Ram fjord (1964) were applied to Assess oral cleanliness. Gingival index of LOe and Silness (1963) were used for recording gingival health condition. The result showed that the prevalence of underweight, stunting and Wasting was found to be 16.4%, 33.0% and 4.7% respectively. The prevalence of malnutrition was higher among females than males, dental caries prevalence was 69.3%, 72.8% and 65.1% for underweight, stunted and wasted children respectively.ds Constitutes the highest mean value among dmfs components for both Malnourished and well nourished. Although underweight , stunted and wasted Children had higher caries experience (dmfs) than that of well nourished groups, The differences were proved to significant for stunted and wasted children Only. Higher plaque and calculus indices were recorded among malnourished Children than wellnourrished children which were proved to be significant for Underweight and stunted children regarding plaque index and wasted children Regarding calculus . The prevalence of gingivitis was found to be 100% for Malnourished children, while 99.9% for wellnourished group. N0 significant differences were found regarding gingival score between malnourished and wellnourished children(p˃0.05) except for stunted children . The prevalence of enamel defect was 52.7% , 44.7% and 51.2% for defect was 52.7% , 44.7% and 51.2% for underweight, stunted and wasted groups respectively. The prevalence was higher among malnourished than well nourished children and higher among males than females except for wasting. Mean number of teeth with enamel defect was higher among malnourished than well nourishedchildren, the difference was proved to be significant for W/A indicator only. I. Introduction Nutrients are substances that are obtained from food and are used by the Body to promote growth, maintenance and repair It involve the intake of food and all the processes involve in digestion , absorption ,transportation , metabolism of nutrient and excretion, thus malnutrition is a poor nourishment resulting from improper diet or some defect of metabolism that prevent the body from utilizing its intake of food properly the relationship among oral health condition , nutritional status and general health are complex with many interrelating factors. The oral cavity is considered to be a mirror of nutritional status of the body. When malnutrition occur during a period of rapid development like during gestation and first few years of life it may caused irreversible effect on developing oral hard and soft tissue Teeth of, children who suffer from protein calorie malnutrition tend to be crowded and rotated possibly caused by inadequate development or retarded growth of the jaw bone (1). An association of delay eruption with malnutrition had been observed in rats fed protein-or protin- calori-deficient diets. An extensive study was conducted for the eruption pattern of deciduous and permanent teeth in Norwegian children during and after world war II . During the war these children showed a delay in the eruption of both dentitions as well as lower weight and height values for their age. A delay in eruption may be associated with a delay in caries acquisition (2). The number of deciduous teeth was lower among malnourished as Compared to the wellnourished(3). Singh et al (2000) (4) stated that "the total number of teeth erupted among malnourished children was lesser than healthy children but this difference was not significany". Malnutrition is undesirable for all tissue; it is even worse for enamel. Once the tooth erupts into the oral cavity, this tissue has no cellular mechanism to repair whatever developmental damage has taken