Dental caries risk indicators in early childhood and their association with caries polarization in adolescence: a cross-sectional study

Background: Based on the hypothesis that biological and social risks accumulate during life, it is important to identify possible dental caries risk indicators from the life course of early childhood and assess their association with caries polarization in adolescence. Methods: A cross-sectional design was applied to the study, and a multistage cluster sampling method used to draw a representative sample of 1063 18-year-old Lithuanian adolescents. The dental examinations were performed according to the methodology for oral status evaluation recommended by the World Health Organization. Parents of the participating adolescents completed a self-administered questionnaire about their children's life course during early childhood. The interdependence of characteristics was evaluated by chi-square (X-2) and Student's (t) criteria. A multivariate logistic regression model with the Significant Caries (SiC) index as an outcome was performed. Results: The mean scores for the number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) and decayed teeth (DT) in the SiC positive group were higher than the corresponding values in the SiC negative group (6.14 [SD, 2.30] and 1.67 [ SD, 2.02] vs 1.28 [SD, 1.11] and 0.34 [SD, 0.69], p < 0.001, respectively). Three dental caries risk indicators were identified that were independently associated with a SiC positive outcome: gender(OR = 1.32 [95 % CI: 1.01-1.73]), earlier eruption of the first primary tooth(OR = 1.43 [95 % CI: 1.03-1.97]), and past caries experience in the primary dentition (OR = 1.62 [95 % CI: 1.22-2.14]). Conclusions: These study findings provide reliable evidence that gender, earlier eruption of the first primary tooth, and past caries experience in the primary dentition should be considered to be dental caries risk indicators and may have an adverse effect on caries polarization in adolescence.