Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com Original Paper Caries Res 2013;47:211–218 DOI: 10.1159/000345534 Impact of Early Childhood Caries on the Oral Health-Related Quality of Life of Preschool Children and Their Parents P.A. Martins-Júnior a R.G. Vieira-Andrade a P. Corrêa-Faria a F. Oliveira-Ferreira b L.S. Marques c M.L. Ramos-Jorge a Departments of a Pediatric Dentistry, b Basic Sciences and Health and c Orthodontics, Federal University of Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, Diamantina, Brazil school children (RR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.54–0.97). Increased age resulted in an increased negative impact on the quality of life of the child (RR = 2.97; 95% CI: 1.61–5.47). ECC has a negative impact on the OHRQoL of children aged 2–5 years and their parents. Mothers aged 30 or older reported better OHRQoL, independent of the presence of ECC and the age of the child. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel The assessment of quality of life has become an inte- gral part of evaluating health programs. Oral health-re- lated quality of life (OHRQoL) is a multidimensional con- cept related to the impact that poor oral health or disease has on the daily functioning, well-being or quality of life of an individual [Pahel et al., 2007]. It is known that children under 5 years of age can suf- fer from many oral health problems, such as early child- hood caries (ECC) [Li et al., 2008; Moura-Leite et al., 2008; Oliveira et al., 2008; Feldens et al., 2010; Abanto et al., 2011; Wong et al., 2011; Leal et al., 2012]. ECC is de- fined as the presence of any carious surface of a primary tooth, or missing (due to caries) or filled teeth, in children younger than 6 years of age [American Academy of Pedi- atric Dentistry Reference Manual, 2008–09]. The level of severity of ECC can lead to teething pain, thereby com- Key Words Early childhood caries  Epidemiology  Quality of life Abstract The aim of the present population study was to evaluate the impact of early childhood caries (ECC) on the oral health- related quality of life (OHRQoL) of preschool children and their parents/caregivers. A random sample of 638 children (aged 2–5 years) underwent a clinical oral examination to as- sess ECC, and their parents were invited to answer two ques- tionnaires: one on the OHRQoL of the child, the Early Child- hood Oral Health Impact Scale, and another on the charac- teristics and sociodemographic conditions of the child. Descriptive analysis,  2 test, Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal- Wallis test, and hierarchically adjusted Poisson regression models were used. The prevalence of ECC was 52.2%. The number of teeth with decay ranged from 1 (n = 42; 6.6%) to 20 (n = 5; 0.8%), averaging 2.86 (SD = 4.04). There was a sig- nificant difference between the severity of ECC and OHRQoL in terms of the impact on both child and family (p ! 0.001). An increase in the severity of ECC resulted in an increased negative impact on the quality of life of the child (rate ratio, RR = 5.32; 95% confidence interval, CI: 3.67–7.71). Greater age of the mother had a positive impact on the OHRQoL of pre- Received: September 15, 2012 Accepted after revision: October 31, 2012 Published online: December 13, 2012 Maria Letícia Ramos-Jorge Arraial dos Forros, 215 Centro Diamantina, MG 39100000 (Brazil) E-Mail mlramosjorge  @  gmail.com © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel 0008–6568/13/0473–0211$38.00/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/cre