Department of Child Dental Health, Faculty of Dentistry, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State, Nigeria. Email:
Department of Oral and maxillofacial Surgery, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
West Afr J Med. 2023 Nov 30;40(11):1232-1239.
Early childhood caries (ECC) is characterized by "the presence of one or more decayed (non-cavitated or cavitated lesions), missing (due to caries), or filled surfaces, in any primary tooth in a child 71 months of age or younger". There have been reports of increased incidence of caries in developing countries.A systematic analysis of the global burden of diseases, injuries and risk factors for 195 countries from 1990 to 2015 reported that almost 8% of children globally were affected by untreated ECC. As such, ECC was classified as one of the diseases of public health concern because it affects millions of infants and preschool children worldwide. This study aimed to review the prevalence and associated factors of early childhood caries in Nigeria and also provides current overview alongside globally recommended treatment guidelines.
PubMed database, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (to February 2022) was used for articles search on the guidelines and recommendations for the treatment of ECC. Guidelines and recommendations published by the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry, International Association of Paediatric Dentistry and European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry from 2017-2020 were retrieved. The following keys used in the MeSH were 'early childhood caries among Nigerian children, 'caries in preschool Nigerian children' 'treatment guidelines', 'treatment policies'and 'treatment recommendations.
A total of 105 (24 plus 81) articles were retrieved but 21(15 plus 6 articles) were selected after the removal of non-specific and duplicated articles.
The prevalence of early childhood caries ranged from 4.3-23.5% in Nigeria while the treatment guidelines and recommendations were case-specific.
The prevalence of early childhood caries varies within the country's geo-political zones.
婴幼儿龋（ECC）的特征为“71 月龄或以下的儿童的任何一颗乳牙出现一个或多个龋齿（未发生龋洞或已发生龋洞的病变）、缺失（由龋病导致）或已填充的牙面”。发展中国家的龋病发病率有所上升。一项针对 1990 年至 2015 年 195 个国家的疾病、伤害和危险因素的全球负担的系统分析报告称，全球近 8%的儿童受到未治疗的 ECC 的影响。因此，ECC 被归类为需要关注的公共卫生疾病之一，因为它影响了全球数百万婴儿和学龄前儿童。本研究旨在综述尼日利亚婴幼儿龋的流行情况及相关因素，并提供当前的全球建议治疗指南概述。
为了搜索关于 ECC 治疗的指南和建议，我们使用了 PubMed 数据库、Cochrane 对照试验中心注册库和 Cochrane 系统评价数据库（截至 2022 年 2 月）。我们检索了美国儿科学会、国际儿童牙科学会和欧洲儿童牙科学会 2017-2020 年发布的指南和建议。在 MeSH 中使用的以下关键词是“尼日利亚儿童的婴幼儿龋”、“尼日利亚学龄前儿童的龋齿”、“治疗指南”、“治疗政策”和“治疗建议”。
共检索到 105 篇（24 篇加 81 篇）文章，但在剔除非特异性和重复文章后，仅选择了 21 篇（15 篇加 6 篇文章）。
尼日利亚的婴幼儿龋患病率为 4.3-23.5%，而治疗指南和建议则是具体情况具体分析。
婴幼儿龋的患病率在该国的地缘政治区域内有所不同。
