Peer-reviewed article
Developmental Defects of Enamel and Associated Factors in 2-Year-Old Children: A Birth Cohort Study.
Emanuella Pinheiro, Jenny Abanto, Elzir de Souza Costa, José Leopoldo Ferreira Antunes, Marly Augusto Cardoso et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined dental enamel defects in 2-year-old Brazilian children and found that nearly 30% had these defects. Young maternal age, maternal family headship, multiple pregnancies, larger birth size, ear infections in infancy, and stunting at age 1 were all associated with increased risk. The findings suggest that maternal health, nutrition, and socioeconomic factors during pregnancy and early childhood influence children's oral health development.
Key points
- Developmental enamel defects were present in 29.5% of 2-year-old children in the cohort
- Maternal age below 21 years was associated with 51% higher prevalence of enamel defects
- Otitis media (ear infections) in early life was associated with 2.4 times higher prevalence of defects
- Stunting at 1 year was associated with 2.2 times higher prevalence of defects
- Multiple maternal factors spanning prenatal through early childhood periods were identified as risk factors
Limitations
The study is observational and cannot establish causation, only associations. The findings are specific to a Brazilian birth cohort and may not generalise to other populations or settings.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To assess the maternal and child factors associated with developmental defects of the enamel (DDE) in a cohort of 2-year-old children. METHODS: This study analysed data from the MINA-Brazil birth cohort study. A total of 800 mother-child pairs were surveyed. Oral clinical examinations were conducted using the modified DDE Index. Associated factors in the pre-, peri- and post-natal periods were collected by standardised procedures. Crude and adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance, following a hierarchical framework selection of covariates, were used to determine the relationships between maternal and child factors and DDE. RESULTS: The prevalence of DDE was 29.5% (95% CI 26.3%-32.7%), and children's mean age was 23.8 ± 1.3 months. Maternal age below 21 years at the time of delivery (PR 1.51, 95% CI 1.16-1.98), pregnant women as the head of the family (PR 1.36, 95% CI 1.03-1.80), multiparity (PR 1.41, 95% CI 1.09-1.82), large for gestational age newborns (PR 1.47, 95% CI 1.13-1.91), otitis media in the first few months of life (PR 2.43, 95% CI 1.43-4.13) and stunting at 1 year (PR 2.21, 95% CI 1.38-3.54) were all associated with DDE. CONCLUSIONS: Several maternal sociodemographic and obstetric factors, as well as perinatal morbidity and nutritional factors, may be determinants of DDE in infants. This emphasises the importance of child development and sociodemographic factors for oral health. Future studies should consider both longitudinal and transdisciplinary approaches.