Objective: To test the hypothesis that pre-eclampsia is associated with higher incidence of early childhood caries in children aged between 3 and 5 years old.
Design: An observational non concurrent cohort study.
Setting: Al-Hayat National Hospital, Khamees Mushyat, Saudi Arabic Kingdom.
Population: Two hundred children aged 3-5 years who fulfilled the inclusion criteria.
Method: A detailed dental examination was carried out for all children enrolled. We obtained all relevant obstetric data from mothers' and pediatric's medical records. Thirty cases were excluded due to missing data and therefore, only 170 children were considered for the statistical analysis. Results were tabulated and statistically analyzed.
Main outcome measure: Early childhood caries.
Results: Sixty-three children (37%) of the 170 were affected with early childhood caries; 6 were delivered to pre-eclamptic and 57 to non pre-eclamptic mothers. Using logistic regression curve, early childhood caries was significantly associated with low birthweight, low Apgar score at 1st min and with the pattern of infant feeding but not with pre-eclampsia. The relative risk for early childhood caries was 2.84 among low birthweight infants (95%CI: 1.47-5.49), 1.95 among non breast fed children (95% CI: 1.11-4.20) and 2.64 among those delivered with an Apgar score less than 5 at 1 minute (95%CI:1.46-4.77).
Conclusion: Pre-ecalampsia may not be associated with early childhood caries. A larger study and/or a study addressing the relation between pre-eclampsia and caries inducing lesions may provide more significant results.