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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Dent. Med
Sec. Pediatric Dentistry
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdmed.2024.1391833
This article is part of the Research Topic Improving Children's Oral Health View all 4 articles

Relationship between caries indexes and obesity in a sample of Puerto Rican adolescents

Provisionally accepted
Lydia M. Lopez Del Valle Lydia M. Lopez Del Valle 1,2*Rosana Hanke Herrero Rosana Hanke Herrero 1,2Sona Rivas Tumanyan Sona Rivas Tumanyan 2Marelys Nieves Plaza Marelys Nieves Plaza 3
  • 1 University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • 2 School of Dental Medicine, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • 3 Other, San Juan, Puerto Rico

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Obesity and caries have become increasingly prevalent. As yet, research results on the relationship between obesity and caries in children and adolescents have been inconclusive. This study aimed to evaluate the association between caries and obesity in adolescents.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of 187 Puerto Rican adolescents aged 13 to 19 years, attending, among them, five high schools. Each participant received dental exams for caries using the criteria of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS), had his or her body mass index (BMI) determined, and took a 19-item risk-factor questionnaire. The Significant Caries (SiC) index (for DMFT) was calculated to compare obese and healthy adolescents. Statistical analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: Nearly 60% of the sample population was female, with a mean age of 15.7 (± 1.25). The mean BMI percentile was 72.24 (± 28.78) ; 48.66% of the participants had a healthy weight, 19.79% were overweight, and 30.48% were obese. Dental caries was observed in 68% of the participants; the mean caries indexes D3-6MFS was 5.17(± 5.92) and mean D3-6MFT 3.59 (± 3.97). No significant differences were found between caries indexes and obesity status (P > 0.05). The Median (p25, p75) SiC index among overweight/obese adolescents was 9.5 (7, 12), whereas for healthy weight/underweight participants was 7 (5, 8) (p<0.005).Based on the limited number of participants, no association was found between dental caries (D3-6MFS and D3-6MFT) and obesity (BMI) among adolescents.

    Keywords: caries, Obesity, BMI, adolescents, caries indexes

    Received: 26 Feb 2024; Accepted: 13 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lopez Del Valle, Hanke Herrero, Rivas Tumanyan and Nieves Plaza. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lydia M. Lopez Del Valle, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

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