Prevalence of odontogenic infections and clinical consequences of untreated dental caries in Iraqi preschool children: cross sectional study

Abstract

Aim: the aim of this study was to report the prevalence of untreated dental caries and their clinical consequences and odontogenic infections in primary teeth of (3-6) year’s old preschool Iraqi children.

Materials and Methods: cross sectional study consisted of 238 children (128 male, 110 female) were at preschool age of (3 – 6) years who were selected from three primary health centers at new Baghdad city complaining from dental pain and/or from abscess as present as a localized area of dental sepsis. The clinical consequences of untreated dental caries were measured using pufa index of Monse et al included four components: pulpal involvement (p), ulceration (u), fistula (f), and abscess (a).

Results: the total children were divided according to age into three groups: (3-4) years old group (3 years to 4 years and 11 months), (n=56, 23.52%), (5) years old group (5 years to 5 years and 11 months), (n=98, 41.18%) and (6) years old group (6 years to 6 years and 11 months), (n=84, 35.29%). (4660) primary teeth of the total children were examined and (n=1645, 35.30%) were the untreated dental caries. The mean pufa and prevalence for the total children was (1.33±1.63, 77.51%) and the “p” component showed the higher mean value and prevalence (3.22±2.19, 46.63%), and other components including “u” (0.62±0.85, 8.94%), “f” (0.97±0.27, 13.98%) and “a” (0.55±0.50, 7.96%) also showed high results. Prevalence’s differences of the total pufa between the age groups showed a nearly results but significant high pufa prevalence was at (3-4) years old children (78.81%) (p=0.000), “p” component showed the significant high prevalence at (3-4) years old children (49.63%)  (p=0.000), “u” component showed the significant high prevalence at (6) years old (9.37%) (p=0.000), “f” component showed significant high prevalence at (5) years old children (15.04%) (p=0.000), and “a” component showed significant high prevalence at (6) years old children (8.56%) (p=0.000).

Conclusions: high prevalence of the clinical consequences of the untreated dental caries in Iraqi preschool children required urgent intervention program and the opportunities to offer such preventive measures in the Iraqi health system.