Prevalence and pattern of caries in primary anterior teeth of preschool children: An observational study.

<bold>Introduction: </bold>Primary teeth are prone to caries. Consequences of caries may hamper eruption and function of the succedaneous teeth. The aim of the study is to find the prevalence and patterns of dental caries in maxillary and mandibular primary anterior teeth of preschool children. The study design adopted was an analytical observational study.<bold>Methodology: </bold>Caries examination was done using the WHO caries detection criteria. Anterior carious tooth surfaces were examined under optimal light source by a single qualified examiner to minimize visual error. The age of children was measured in years. Obtained data were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS 16 software. A test for significance was done with the help of the Chi-square test.<bold>Results: </bold>Right maxillary and mandibular canines had more caries prevalence and patterns as compared to their left counterpart of the same arch. Maxillary canines had more prevalence of caries as compared to mandibular canines. Mandibular lateral incisors had about eight times less chance to develop caries as compared to maxillary lateral incisors. Maxillary and mandibular right central incisors had equal caries prevalence and patterns of their counterparts of the same arch, but maxillary central incisors had four times more caries prevalence as compared to mandibular central incisors.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Right maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth had more prevalence of caries as compared to their left counterparts. Maxillary anterior teeth had more prevalence of caries as compared to mandibular anterior teeth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]