Association between maternal — child levels of salivary Mutans Streptococci and early childhood caries

Abstract

Background: To find out if there is an association between levels of salivary Mutans Streptococci

(MS)

Materials and Methods: t-test were used to find differences between groups. P  Results: P  P  P  Conclusion: Present study showed a strong association between maternal and child salivary MS levels indicating that mother’s MS count could be an important risk indicator for ECCdevelopment.< 0.001).= 0.003). Forty nine of the Children in case group with a high count alsohad mothers with high count as against only 14 in the control group ( < 0.001. Among 180 mothers, 100 had a high MS count. Among them, 60 (60%) belonged to case group and 40 (40%)to the control group (Among 180 children, 80 of them had a high MS count. Among them, 60 (75%) had ECCand only 20 (25%) were caries free. This difference was significant with value of <0.05 was considered as significant.

A cross sectional study was designed among 180 mother-child

Key Words: Children, early childhood caries, maternal, Mutans Streptococci

pair attending Vanivilasa Children Hospital, Bangalore, India. Caries was diagnosed using WHO

criteria. Ninety children with Early Childhood Caries (ECC) with their mothers were included

in case group and 90 caries free children with their mothers were included in the control

group. Whole non-stimulated saliva was collected from mothers and children and cultured

for MS. Colonies were counted and compared. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 10.

Chi-square test and

of mothers and salivary MS and Caries experience of their Children.