Prevalence of early childhood caries in 3- to 5-year-old children in Philadelphia district, Mpumalanga Province.

Introduction: Early Childhood Caries (ECC) can be defined as dental caries in preschool children. There is a lack of data on the prevalence of ECC at a global, national, regional and district level. Hence the severity and extent of the disease is unknown.

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to establish the prevalence of ECC among 3- to 5-year-old children from the Philadelphia district in Mpumalanga.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 269 children aged between 3 and 5 years. The caries status was determined using the decayed, missing and filled teeth (dmft) index as described by WHO 1997. RESULTS The percentage caries free individuals were 74.6%, 44.2% and 46.6% and the dmft values were 0.93, 2.69 and 2.18 for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds respectively. The mean mt and ft values for 3- and 4-year-olds was zero. Among the 5-year-olds, the mean mt and ft values was 0.01 and 0.02 respectively.

Conclusion: For a rural community the prevalence of ECC is high. Virtually all caries in preschool children from this community is left untreated. There is a need for a properly planned preventive strategy for this community.