Caries, Oral Hygiene and Saliva Factors in Young Malaysian Children

Objective: To determine the prevalence of Early-Childhood-Caries (ECC) and its relationship with oral hygiene, salivary pH and saliva buffering-capacity in 3-5-year-old Malaysian children from low socioeconomic families. Methods: A purposive sample of 150 subjects aged 3-5-year-old was examined for oral hygiene (OHIS Index), dental caries (dmf index) and subsequently were subjected to salivary pH and buffering-capacity tests (Saliva-Check-Buffer-GC-test kit). Ethics approval was released by the University's Ethics Committee. Analysis was carried out using SPSS statistical-package-version-15. Appropriate tests of association was conducted and significant level chosen was p=0.05. Results: ECC was highly prevalent (65%) in the sample with a mean dmft of 3.8 s.d 4.4. Age was statistically significant with increase in mean dmft (p=0.043). Mean OHIS score was highest and significant in severe-ECC (p=0.000). In general, all groups had healthy salivary pH (6.8-7.8). Highly acidic saliva (pH=5.0-5.8) however, was found only in subjects with ECC. Almost equal proportion of those with very low salivary buffering-capacity was observed in children without (14.6%) or with moderate ECC (13.3%). The proportion however, was only half as many in those with severe ECC (8.3%). Conclusion: ECC was found to be highly prevalent among 3-5-year-old children from low socioeconomic families. ECC's severity was associated with high OHIS score, highly acidic saliva and very low salivary buffering-capacity.