The Assessment of Food Habits in Children and the Risk of Premature Tooth Extraction

The improper food habits are one of the most important risk factors for caries development and premature tooth extraction. The aim of this study is to assess the food habits of children with prematurely tooth loss compared to the healthy children. Methods and materials The study covers 140 children between 6 and 9 years old. The control group consists of 50 children and the clinical group consists of 90 children with prematurely extracted teeth. The patients from the clinical group were divided into three groups of 30 patients. The control group consists of 50 children with intact denture. special questionnaire was filled from the parents of the examined children about frequency of carbohydrate intake of their children. Results Only a few percentage of children from the first and control group have a proper food habits and take carbohydrates rarely as a dessert-7, 1 % and 14, 3 % respectively. Most of the children eat simple sugar between meals-control group 55, 1 %, group 1 57, 1 %, group 2 70 %, group 3 50 %. Half of the children from the third group take carbohydrates often, anytime. Conclusions The both groups of children (with and without prematurely extracted teeth) have unbalanced nutrition, connected with an increased take of simple sugar. The frequent intake of low-molecular carbohydrates, increase for a long period the acidic proliferation of tooth plaque microorganisms, being one of the underlying etiological factors of caries development and premature tooth loss.