Prevalence and pattern of early childhood caries in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Background: Early childhood caries is a public health problem in a developing country such as Nigeria where there are limited resources to combat the situation.

Aim: The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence and pattern of early childhood caries (ECC) among nursery school children aged 3 to 5 years in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 540 nursery school children aged 3 to 5 years old in nursery schools within Ibadan. Oral examination was performed and dmft (decayed-missing-filled teeth) indices were recorded. Data was analyzed using SPSS 16.0 and descriptive statistics was applied. The level of significance was taken at p value < 0.05.

Results: The prevalence of early childhood caries was 23.5% with a total of 353 carious teeth seen in 127 children. The mean dmft was 0.65 ± 1.49 and the decayed (d) component constituted 100% of the dmft scores (all dmft was due to untreated caries). The second mandibular primary molars were the teeth most affected by caries, accounting for 35.4% of all decayed teeth. Severe ECC prevalence was 2.2%.

Conclusion: The high caries prevalence observed on the second mandibular primary molars reveals the rampant nature of this disease and the absence of any missing or filled tooth in the dmft indices shows poor dental awareness among the parents/guardians of the children.