Erosive Tooth Wear Among Preschool Children in Hong Kong.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the prevalence and severity of erosive tooth wear among 3- to 5-year-old children in Hong Kong and to determine the effect of socioeconomic factors, dental habits and oral hygiene on their dental erosion status. Methods: This survey was conducted in 2016 with ethics approval from the University of Hong Kong. Stratified random sampling was adopted to select 3-to 5-year-old children attending kindergarten in Hong Kong. The participant’s parents were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their child’s demographic and socioeconomic background, and oral health related behaviours. The study children were examined for erosive tooth wear using Basic Erosive Wear Examination (BEWE) criteria by a single examiner using dental mirror attached to an LED intra-oral light. Visible plaque index (VPI) was adopted for recording oral hygiene. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between erosive tooth wear and the children’s socioeconomic factors, oral health related habits and oral hygiene. Results: A total of 1204 preschool children from 7 kindergartens participated in this study. Prevalence of tooth wear (BEWE score >0) was 14.9%. Among them, 153 children (12.8%) had early/initial tooth wear, while 21 children (1.8%) had distinct tooth loss and 5 (0.4%) had severe tooth wear. The mean (SD) of BEWE cumulative score was 0.3 (0.9). Prevalence of tooth wear among the 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds were 10.7%, 15.0% and 17.7%, respectively. Logistic regression showed that increasing age, low education of mother, high VPI score were risk factors of erosive tooth wear (p<0.05). Conclusions: Prevalence and severity of erosive tooth wear is low among preschool children in Hong Kong. Prevalence of tooth wear of the study children increased with increasing age, lower education of mother and poorer oral hygiene.