Early Childhood Caries: A Preventable Disease.
Early Childhood Caries is a preventable chronic disease which affects infants
and children worldwide. The early detection of ECC can reduce pain,
life threatening conditions and helps in the growth and the overall development of the child.
The risk factors of ECC include: Mutant Streptococci, dietary and feeding habits,
socioeconomic and environmental factors, systemic diseases and certain medications.
The dangers of excessive bottle feeding, sweetened liquids and prolonged
on-demand breastfeeding are highlighted as risk factors for ECC in the literature.
The World Health Organization recommends that children should be breastfed
up to 24 months of age.
Whilst, healthcare professionals and paediatricians recommend that
breastfeeding should be continued from birth of the child to one year and beyond.
The classic aetiology of ECC involved bacterial, dietary, and host determinants
with interplay of multiple sociological and environmental factors.
Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus, are the most common
identified causative agents of ECC, acid-producing pathogens caused damage
by dissolving tooth structures in presence of fermentable carbohydrates
such as sucrose, fructose, and glucose.
mother-to-child transmission of cariogenic bacteria and repeated supply of substrate leads to plaque development and early childhood caries.
The formation of plaque and consumption of sugar at bedtime without proper
brushing of teeth leads to rapid progression of caries.
Dent Open J. 2015; 2(2): 55- 61. doi: 10.17140/DOJ-2-111
