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Aim: The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of dental caries and the impact of vitamin D deficiency and other possible associated socio-demographic and life-style habit risk-factors for dental caries. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among children 7-16 years of age who visited Primary Health-Care Centers (PHCs). A random sample of 1,752 children aged below 16 years who visited the PHCs was approached and parents of 1,249 children expressed their consent with a response rate of 71%. The study was based on socio-demographic information, life-style and clinical information as well as laboratory investigations for biochemical assessment of vitamin D status. Furthermore, the study provides mean and standard deviation (SD), number of decayed teeth (DT), missing teeth (MT), filled teeth (FT) and decayed missing and filled teeth (DMFT) across different socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics of the participants. The status of dental caries was recorded according to the World Health Organization criteria. Results: The prevalence of dental caries with 95% of the confidence interval among children with vitamin D deficiency was very high 59% (56.7-61.3) compared with the control population (52% 48.2-55.8). The mean number of FT were significantly higher among the age group of 10-13 years as compared with 7-10 years (mean 1.05 0.08 vs. mean 0.75 0.07; P P P P P P P P = 0.025). Conclusion: The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is high in dental caries children and more common in girls. Vitamin D deficiency appears as a result from a combination of limitations in sunlight exposure and a low oral intake of vitamin D.
Bener et al. (Tue,) studied this question.