Relationship between social network and social support with early childhood caries

ABSTRACT Objective: The objective of our study was to investigate the relationship between social network and social support with early childhood caries in preschool children. Methods: A transversal study with 100 children aging at most 5 years and 11 months was performed. The children underwent a clinical dental evaluation and their parents answered a structured questionnaire. Results: Dental caries was associated with time of bottle feeding (p=0.031) (RP=5.203) and number of dental appointment (p=0,010) (RP=6,293). Moreover, dental caries was also directly associated with the number of siblings living together in the same house (p=0.002) (r=0.372), while inverse correlation was found between dental caries and social support (p=0.028) (r= - 0.219). Conclusion: Preschool children whose supervisors had a better social support presented superior oral health, suggesting that social support from caregivers is associated with improved pediatric oral health.