Prevalence of Dental Caries in Arabian Children Attending King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah: A Pilot Study.

This study aimed to identify the prevalence of dental caries in children and the impact of associated risk factors. This cross-sectional study was performed on children attending the dental clinic at King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry criteria were used for the diagnosis of early childhood caries. Only Saudi children aged three to 12 years whose parents had given consent and who were attending dental clinics at King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah, were involved in the study and underwent clinical examinations. Non-Saudi nationals and uncooperative children under the age of three years are excluded from the study. The statistics were performed using SPSS version 23 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.), considering a p-value of less than 0.05 as significant. A high prevalence of 95% (96) of dental caries was evident in the present study. This study found that dental visits and diet had an impact on dental caries status, while gender, age, family position, and oral hygiene practices did not show any impact.