Impact of dental treatment on anthropometric and health outcomes: a randomised controlled trial amongst Saudi children

Background: Dental caries is a significant public health problem in many countries. There is equivocal evidence of an association between caries and children's anthropometric outcomes. On the other hand, some studies from developed countries showed that dental treatment of severe caries accelerated weight gain in low weight children. Objectives: 1) To assess the relationship between caries and children’s anthropometric and health related outcomes in a high caries population. 2) To evaluate the effect of treatment of severe caries on children’s anthropometric and health related outcomes. Methods: Two studies were conducted. Study I was a cross sectional survey of 417 school children between the ages of 5-8-year (42.0% males and 58.0% females). Dental and anthropometric examinations were performed using WHO standardised procedures. Study II was a randomised controlled trial of 86 children from Study I who satisfied certain selection criteria. CONSORT guidelines were followed. Dental treatment was provided to the test group and all selected outcomes were measured 6-month post-intervention for test and control groups. ANCOVA and regression modelling were used to analyse data. Results: Study I: Children with higher levels of caries had significantly lower anthropometric outcomes and higher dental impacts than those with lower caries levels. Study II: There were insignificant improvements in anthropometric outcomes between test and control groups after treatment of caries. Children in test group reported to have significantly better health related outcomes than controls. Conclusions: The negative linear trend which was detected in Study I between caries and all anthropometric outcomes implies that caries level may be a risk factor for poor growth in children. In Study II, although dental treatment did not significantly improve the mean weight and height Z-scores, treated children had lower levels of dental pain, sepsis and dissatisfaction with teeth and smiling. Interestingly, a significant increase in appetite was identified in test group compared to controls