Abstract
Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of some nursing caries factors related to presentation such as
gender variation, pattern of feeding habits, parent’s education and area of residence through a random
sample of preschool children in Mosul City. Materials and Methods: A sample of 271 children was
selected from 2–5 year olds, attending the Pedodontic clinic of Dentistry College at Mosul University
and some others private dental clinic in Mosul City. For each child, clinical exanimation was
performed on dental chair. The examination was conducted with a visual and non tactile technique. The
criterion used for nursing caries was the presence of caries on the labial or lingual surfaces (smooth
surface) of at least two maxillary incisors with absence of caries in mandibular incisors. The
questionnaire was designed to collect general information on each child: name, age, gender as well as
questions including area of residence (rural or urban) and parental education levels. Dietary
information sought included past and current infant feeding practices either; breast feeding, bottle
feeding or mixed of both. Chi – square (X2) test was used to determine the gender differences for each
group and between total samples of different groups. The differences were considered significant at p ≤
0.05. Results: A total of 271 children with nursing caries, 146 (53.87%) males and 125 (46.13%)
females of 2 – 5 years old were included in this study. The higher number of children was from rural
area than those from the urban area with significant difference (p≤ 0.05) between them. Concerning
parents’ education, nursing caries was significantly the higher amongst children of mothers and fathers
with the lowest level of education. The lowest percentages of children were seen in the children of
parents educated to beyond college level. The higher number of children was of breast feeding group
followed by bottle feeding group and mixed feeding group with a significant difference (p≤ 0.05)
between breast feeding and mixed feeding groups only. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference
(p>0.05) between different genders among all variables groups. Conclusions: The occurrence of
nursing caries in preschool children appears to vary significantly with respect to the area of residence,
parental education and feeding habits groups. The improvement of different familial factors may have
an impact on the oral health of children.
