Relation between body mass index and dental caries among adolescents

Background: Obesity and dental caries are both multifactorial diseases. Their prevalence is increasing among infants and adolescents. Research results on the association between dental caries and obesity are contradictory and the nature of factors involved remains unclear. The aims were to review and summarize the type of the relation between dental caries and obesity among infants and adolescents aged 8 to 18 years old and to identify factors contributing to the clarification of the relationship. Method: Research of literature was undertaken on electronically databases Scholar Google, Medline, completed by manual searches from reference lists of studies. Review was based on cross sectional studies published between 2010 and 2015. Results: The results showed that dental caries were associated with high and low body mass index. In addition to the socioeconomic, environmental, behavioural, lifestyle factors, the review identified that the choice of instruments used to diagnose the dental caries and the obesity had impact on the results. Conclusion: The present review has identified the impact of the indicators used for measuring obesity and dental caries other than the standard BM! or DMFT respectively. Future research should test if their use will change the conclusions on the association between obesity and dental caries.