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CC BY 4.0 · Eur J Dent 2024; 18(01): 329-340
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1769896
Original Article

Risk of Early Childhood Caries Estimated by Maternal Dental Caries during Pregnancy: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Sunithi Thearawiboon
1   Dental Department, Prachathipat Hospital, Pathum Thani, Thailand
,
Chanapong Rojanaworarit
2   Department of Population Health, School of Health Professions and Human Services, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, United States
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Abstract

Objective Public policy promoting prenatal dental care to provide long-term prevention of early childhood caries (ECC) in offspring would require evidence regarding the ECC risk associated with maternal dental caries during pregnancy. This study evaluated that association using a design capable of assessing temporal relationships and considered a directed acyclic graph to guide the adjustment of pertinent confounders.

Materials and Methods This retrospective cohort study analyzed data from 158 mother–child dyads attending care at Prachathipat Hospital, Pathum Thani, Thailand. Maternal dental caries data at their first visits to prenatal oral care from February 2012 to May 2017 were traced forwardly to match the oral health data of offspring who visited the hospital from May 2013 to March 2018.

Results Univariable and multivariable fractional logit regression models along with the calculation of average marginal effects revealed that children born to two categories of mothers with 1 to 5 and ≥6 carious teeth during pregnancy would averagely develop 4.5 to 5 and 7.9 to 8.8 more carious teeth per 100 teeth than dental caries would occur in offspring of caries-free mothers.

Conclusion This evidence identified the role of maternal dental caries during pregnancy as a significant clinical risk indicator for ECC and supported the provision of prenatal dental care for mothers to prevent ECC in offspring.

Keywords

dental caries - risk indicator - pediatric dentistry - epidemiology

Institutional Review Board Statement

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and reviewed by The Research Ethics Review Committee for Research Involving Human Subjects of Pathum Thani Province under study number PPHO-REC 2561/018, reviewed in August 2018.


Informed Consent Statement

Patient consent was waived due to the use of secondary data that were deidentified by authorized personnel at Prachathipat Hospital. Permission to use hospital records was also obtained from the director of Prachathipat Hospital.


Data Availability Statement

Data are contained within this article.




Publication History

Article published online:
22 March 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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