Early childhood caries is a condition that impacts oral health-related quality of life of children's development and well being and also affects parents' work hours and poses a financial burden on them. Our objective was to study and compare the impact of early childhood caries on the quality of life of preschool children aged 22-70 months and their caregivers in an urban and rural population using the early childhood oral health impact scale. The study was conducted on children of the Rangareddy district, Telangana state, aged between 22 -70 months affected by early childhood caries and their parents/guardians. The subjects were given a questionnaire to measure the early childhood oral health impact scale, and the filled questionnaires were analyzed and tabulated. The mean early childhood oral health impact scale and domain scores for the rural population were significantly higher than that of the urban population signifying a more mediocre quality of life. There was a weak positive and insignificant relationship between early childhood caries and the early childhood oral health impact scale in the rural population, whereas there was a moderately strong, significant positive relationship between the two in the urban population. Oral health-related quality of life of young children enables parents and caregivers to implement positive dental care practices.
Keywords: Early childhood caries; early childhood oral health Impact scale; oral health-related quality of life; pediatric dentist.
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