Caries
Ani C. Merjian, DDS
Pediatric Dental Resident
St. Barnabas Hospital
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, United States
Paul Chu, DDS
Program Director
St. Barnabas Hospital
Bronx, New York, United States
Purpose: The aim of this project is to determine whether parental immigration history and cultural perceptions of dental care in country-of-origin place children at an increased risk of developing dental caries with higher DMFT/dmft scores.
Methods: 103 p</span>arents of patients aged 1-17 years old who are established patients will be included in this study to fill out a survey with pertinent questions. The second portion of the study will include a clinical and radiographic exam or retrospective review of clinical and radiographic exam in order to calculate the Decayed, Missing and Fill Teeth (DMFT/dmft) index which will be used to calculate the caries prevalence for each child of the parent filling out the questionnaire.
Results: The data collected will be analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance followed by regression analysis. Though no statistical significance was shown in analysis, when comparing DMFT % to years living in the U.S., a trend was seen of lower DMFT % the longer the parent has been in the U.S.
Conclusion: Children with immigrant parents may have increased risk of higher DMFT/dmft scores thus the results of the study could provide specific and early interventions related to oral health to communities with children with foreign-born parents.