Exploring the relation between dental caries and body mass index among primary dentition, mixed dentition and permanent dentition children - A systematic review

Abstract

The research on the association of the Body mass index and Dental caries has indicated inconsistent results in the previous studies. Therefore, the present review intended to re analyse the relationship between Body mass index and Dental caries. The databases used to search were Pubmed, Embase, Journal of the web using the following mesh terms, Body mass index, overweight, underweight, Obesity, DMFT, Tooth decay, child. The other methods were the manual searches of the reference lists of all selected studies, reviews, conference proceedings with complete information. The results were evaluated based on the 3 groups as an association of Dental caries and BMI for Primary teeth, mixed dentition and permanent teeth. The studies should consider the review based on the individual country specific BMI-for-age centiles to reduce the heterogeneities in the results as it causes inconclusive results.