Eruption of Deciduous Teeth in Children from Chennai and Correlating it with Birth Weight and Term – A Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives: The objective of the current research was intended to explore the eruption of primary teeth amidst children in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and evaluate the involvement of birth weight and term on eruption pattern. Material and Methods: The research was a cross-sectional oral health examination conducted from February 2023 to July 2023. The sampling was all primary health care centres in Chennai. Primary health care centres were arbitrarily chosen using systematic random sampling procedure. Children aged 3 - 36 months were enlisted by simple random sampling method from immunization units of primary health care centres in Chennai. 1700 children were assessed out of which 828 were boys and 853 were girls. The infant’s birth weight and gestational age were designated utilising the pertinent World Health Organization calibre. Oral examination was performed visually to determine the count of type of erupted teeth using a dental mirror under good illumination. A tooth was contemplated to be erupted whenever any portion of the crown had pierced the gingiva and furthermore noticeable intraorally. Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 25 was used to analyse the data. Data normality was found to be non-normal using Kolmogorov - Smirnov test. Descriptive demographics was demonstrated using mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage. Kruskal Wallis trial was utilized for inter group comparison between birth weight and eruption, and chi-square test for comparison between term of birth and eruption. Results: Association of birth weight and eruption of teeth is significant in almost every tooth except maxillary lateral incisors, maxillary first molars and mandibular central incisors. Term of month, i.e. full term and pre term birth are significantly associated with all the erupted teeth. Conclusion: Term of birth and birth weight was significantly and negatively associated with eruption of teeth in primary dentition. This study also puts forward that a notable 2-3 months delayed eruption of almost all the primary dentition is seen in Chennai compared to standard chronology.