Abstract

The study aims to explore the possible impact of biological factors such as birth rank, age and sex on the severity of caries experienced by a population of Nigerian children with caries. Specifically, it explores the impact of a child’s birth rank on the severity of caries and the effect of other biological variables such as the age and sex on this risk. Information were collected from the 497 children from 135families. Information collected included the age of the child, the gender and the birth rank. The age of the child was the age at the last birthday. The dmft/DMFT was also assessed for each child recruited as well as that of his or her siblings. The model uses the first child as the reference. It compares the first and the second child and so on. The trend of association was also tested. The strong risk factors identified for caries in this study are the age, having older siblings with caries and sex. The dmft/DMFT reduced by 0.072 for every year increase in age. Also, the dmft/DMFT is less by 0.25 in females compared with males. Finally, thedmft/DMFT of a child increases by 0.48 for every older sibling having caries. While there was an associated established between birth rank and caries, only age, sex and having older siblings with caries were established as risk factors for caries in the children in this study population. The finding of this study helps to provide clinicians an additional evaluation tool for identifying caries risk of children seen in the dental clinic. Patients with older siblings who have caries should be managed as a high caries prone child.

Key words: Nigeria, caries, birthrank, children, siblings.