Isfahan University of Medical SciencesDental Research Journal1735-33279320120821Is there an association between early childhood caries and serum iron and serum ferritin levels?10871087ENMostafaSadeghiDepartment of Restorative Dentistry, Medical School, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. mostafa.sadeghi@rums.ac.irRezaDarakhshanAliBagherian20120821Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a virulent form of dental caries that can destroy theprimary dentition of preschool children. The purpose of this study was to investigate a possibleassociation between ECC with serum iron and serum ferritin levels.Materials and Methods: Following the ethical approval, 204 children aged 24–71 months wererecruited for a double-blind, randomized cross-sectional study. Each child was examined clinicallyfor dental caries using the World Health Organization criteria in Rafsanjan, Iran. Decayed, extracted,and filled primary teeth (deft) index was used to measure the dental caries. To determine serumiron and serum ferritin levels 2 mL blood was collected from each child. Data were then analyzedby Pearson’s correlation coefficient and t-test using SPSS-16.0 software.Results: The mean values and their standard deviations of the deft index and levels of serum ironand ferritin were 2.4(± 3.3), 93.8(± 29.0) μg/dL and 63.1(± 32.2) ng/mL, respectively, with the twolatter within. There was no significant difference between genders. Pearson’s correlation coefficientshowed that there was a statistically significant inverse association between ECC and serum ironlevel (P<0.05); but no association was found with the serum ferritin level.Conclusion: The deft index decreased significantly with increasing serum iron levels, but therewas no association between ECC experience and serum ferritin levels.Key Words: Deft index, early childhood caries, serum ferritin, serum iron