Influence of Breastfeeding and Feeding on Children Dental Caries: a Cross-Sectional Study.

The objective was to investigate the experience of dental caries and associated factors from the children's and adolescents' medical records who visited the Children's Dental Clinic of a College of southern Brazil. A cross-sectional study was carried out by analyzing 262 medical records. For data collection, information on demographic data, oral hygiene, food, breastfeeding and oral clinical data were used to investigate. A multivariate analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals, by the exposure variables in a Binary Logistic Regression model (p-value< 0.05). Of the sample, 86.3% had some teeth with experience of dental caries, with only 13.7% free of caries. The average dental caries was 5.3 ± 3.1 in children between 6 and 8 years and 2.0 ± 1.9 between 9 and 12 years. There was a statistically significant association between age and dental caries, with the largest age group being a protective factor for dental caries (OR 0.30; 95%CI 0.17-0.53). Children who were breastfed naturally had a protective factor for caries (OR 0.29; 95%CI 0.10-0.88). The experience of dental caries in children was high, especially in primary teeth, with a higher average of decayed teeth. Breastfeeding and age were a protective factor for dental caries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]