Caries dental y desarrollo infantil temprano. Estudio piloto

F. Loreto Núñez, B. Javier Sanz, L. Gloria Mejía

To investigate the association between dental caries and early childhood development in 3-year-olds from Talca, Chile. A pilot study with a convenience sample of 3-year-olds from Talca (n = 39) who attend public healthcare centers. Child development was measured by the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI), a screening tool used nationally among pre-school children to assess language development, fine motor skills and coordination areas. Dental caries prevalence was evaluated by decayed, missing, filled teeth (DFMT) and decayed, missing, filled tooth surfaces (DFMS) ceo-d and ceo-s indexes. The children were divided into two groups according to the PDIscore: those with a score of 40 or more were considered developmentally normal (n = 32), and those with a score below 40 were considered as having impaired development (n = 7). The severity of caries (DMFT) was negatively correlated with PDI (r = -0.82), and children with the lowest TEPSI score had the highest DFMT values. The average DMFT in children with normal development was 1.31, and 3.57 for those with impaired development. This pilot study indicates that the severity of dental caries is correlated with early childhood development.