Relationship between sweetness preference and dental caries in mother child pairs

 Dr. A. Pakdel* - Eng. N. Valaei** - Dr. N. Mirzabeygi***

 *- Assistant Professor of Pedodontics Dept. - Faculty of Dentistry – Tehran Islamic Azad University.

 **- The member of Islamic Azad University.

***- Dentist.

Background and Aim: Considering the existing concern on increasing caries and the importance of sweetness impact on it. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between sweetness preference and dental caries among pre-school mother/child pairs in Tehran, 2004.

Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted on 120 pairs of pre-school children and their mother (240 samples) using descriptive design and random cluster sampling. The levels of dmft/DMFT were measured on WHO indices and sweetness preference was measured by modified sweet preference inventory. The related factors included sex, type of pre-school, parents' age, occupation and education, and mother's marital status. The correlation between mother-child sweetness preference was measured by Spearman correlation coefficient, the relationship between sweetness preference and the level of caries was assessed by Kruskal-Wallis method and DMFT/dmft correlation was judged by Pearson's relation.

Results: Correlation between sweetness preference of mother and child was 0.14. There was no significant relationship between the levels of dmft/DMFT and children's dmft were 48.5±8.53 and 3.66±3.5, respectively and their correlation was 0.02.

Conclusion: No significant relationship was found between sweetness preference and the amount of caries in mother/child pairs. In other words, sweetnss preference plays no role in mother/child caries.

 Key words: dmft/DMFT – Sweetness preference – Mother - Child.