Participants should be aware of the following financial/non-financial relationships: . Hala Z. Shakir, BDS, MPH: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Rochisha Singh Marwaha, BDS, MPH: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Pankil Shah, MD, MSPH: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Suman N Challa, BDS, MSPH: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Abstract: Objectives: To investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and dental caries among adults using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from (2013-2014, 2015-2016, and 2017-2018).
Methods: This cross-sectional study uses the NHANES data based on 29,400 adults who participated in the survey. The NHANES survey is a representative sample of the population within the United States. The survey included demographic, socioeconomic, health, and oral health-related questions. Exploratory descriptive analyses and Chi-square tests were conducted to study the relationship between BMI and dental caries, followed by logistic regression to understand the strength of association between the variables in this study.
Results: The preliminary data analysis indicated that individuals in higher BMI categories; BMI 25.0 to 29.9 (overweight), and BMI > 30 (obese), demonstrated higher Decayed, Missing, Filling (DMF) scores and an overall increase in dental caries prevalence compared to the healthy groups of lower BMI (BMI of 18.5-24.9). Covariates such as depression and sleep apnea may lead to xerostomia in overweight/obese patients, which may have contributed to the increase in dental caries prevalence.
Conclusions: A higher prevalence of dental caries was observed in the participants who were overweight/obese. Future studies should focus on understanding the relationship of covariates such as sleep apnea and depression and their influence on the prevalence of dental caries in the overweight/obese population.
