Associations between risk factors, including approximal contact types and dental caries in children from low-income families. Pilot study

The present cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate various caries risk factors in children from low socio-economic groups and to assess if children with broad contacts between one or more primary molars (type I and S) should be categorized as at high caries risk. Clinical examinations were performed on 107, 3- to 10-year-old children from low socio-economic settings. Contact types along with other caries risk factors (insurance, diet, plaque, and fluoride use, and diet habits) were analyzed for effect on presence of caries lesions (prevalence) and caries experience (decayed, missing, filled teeth). 78% of the study population had dental caries lesions, with an average dmft of 5.6. Of the 277 evaluated contacts, 88% were categorized as broad contacts. Multivariate analyses failed to validate that broad contacts were a predictor of dental caries lesions. However, the analysis showed an association of insurance status, plaque index with dmft. In conclusion, the present study could not implicate broad contacts as a factor that increased caries risk in the studied population; however, it validates the importance of insurance status, plaque index, as well as diet frequency as predictors of dental caries lesions.