Influence of body mass index on severity of dental caries: cross-sectional study in healthy adults

BACKGROUND: The relationship between body mass index (BMI) and dental caries is still undetermined. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the relationship between the dental status by decayed, missed, filled teeth index (DMFT), and BMI by age and gender among healthy adults. DESIGN: Analytical, cross-sectional study. SETTINGS: University dental hospital in Riyadh. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Healthy adults aged between 18 and 35 years were recruited during the 10-month period from March 2015 to December 2015. Dental caries severity was estimated using the DMFT index. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The prevalence of overweight/obesity and the association of BMI category with the DMFT index. RESULTS: The mean age of 502 subjects was 24.3 (4.9) years. The caries severity of the study population was considered moderate according to the WHO caries severity scale (mean [standard deviation] DMFT 13.3 [3.8]). The mean (SD) DMFT of male and female subjects was 13.1 (4.0) and 13.36 (3.7), respectively. No significant association was seen between dental caries and BMI. Logistic regression analysis showed that males had two times more risk of developing dental caries compared to females. In addition, the risk of caries development was increased by about 5 times for every year of age. CONCLUSION: Dental caries was not associated with BMI but age significantly influenced the DMFT index and gender was associated with more missing teeth. Further longitudinal studies with larger cohorts from several geographic regions are warranted. LIMITATION: Convenience sampling and recruitment from a single dental center may have some impact on the generalization of data.