Association of Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference With Dental Caries and Consequences of Untreated Dental Caries Among 12-to 14-Year-old Boys: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: To evaluate the association between body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) and dental caries (DC), and the clinical consequences of untreated dental caries (U-DC) among 12-to 14-year-old male public-school adolescents in the Northern Province, Saudi Arabia. Methods: The demographic and anthropometric measurements of 302 boys 12 to 14 years of age (mean: 12.5 years) were recorded. BMI and central obesity (based on WC) were measured. The decayed-missing-filled teeth (DMFT) index was used to record DC. The pulp involvement, ulceration, fistula, abscess (PUFA) index was used to quantify the clinical consequences of U-DC. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the risk factors related to DC and clinical consequences of U-DC. Results: A high prevalence of DC was found in adolescents who were underweight according to BMI and nonobese based on WC (46.7% vs 34.5%). The association between underweight (BMI) and obese (WC) with DC (odds ratio [95% CI]) was 1.91 (0.87, 4.18) and 0.34 (0.18, 0.63), respectively, while with PUFA (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]; 95%CI), it was 1.76 (0.76, 4.09) and 0.19 (0.06, 0.63) respectively. The logistic regression model showed that consuming sugar more than once a day led to a 2.87-fold greater likelihood of DC (AOR [95% CI] = 2.87 [1.68, 4.88]) and a 3.91-fold greater likelihood of mean PUFA score (AOR [95% CI] = 3.91 [2.05, 7.44]. Conclusion: High risks for DC and clinical consequences of U-DC were observed among underweight and nonobese adolescent males. The frequency of sugar consumption was significantly associated with both conditions. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of FDI World Dental Federation. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)