Caries and obesity in 6 year-old schoolchildren from the Metropolitan region (MR) of Santiago, Chile

purpose: dental caries and obesity are multifactorial diseases of high prevalence in chilean child population, and both are preventable from early age. they share association with diet habits and socio-cultural determinants. the objective of this study was to determine the coexistence between caries and obesity in 6 year-old schoolchildren from the metropolitan region of santiago, chile. methods: a sample was composed by 571 6 year-old schoolchildren from the fluoridated communes of the metropolitan region of santiago, chile, in 2004-2005. caries diagnosis was performed by using the who criteria for epidemiological studies. nutritional diagnosis was carried out according to bmi/age and sex in relation to cdc-nchs curves, considering obese children with a ≥95 percentile. socioeconomic level (sel) and sex were recorded. results: no statistically significant difference was found between caries history and nutritional status (ns) (p=0.837), in both primary and permanent dentition (p=0.306).there was no risk association (or 0.88; ic 0.60-1.28; 95%). overweight children had less caries prevalence and history than normal weight and obese children. no relationship was found at the multivariate analysis between ns, sel and caries occurrence. conclusion: obesity is not related to dental caries in this sample. overweight children had less caries prevalence and severity.