Prevalence of Dental Caries among Type I Diabetic children in Sudan

Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in the general population. Dental caries is the most prevalent disease affecting the human race. The relation between diabetes mellitus and dental caries is in the ingestion of carbohydrates. The main objectiveof this study is to determine the prevalence of dental caries in type I diabetic children.Subjects and Methods: 63 Type I diabetics from Ja’far Ibn Ouf Children’s Hospital (Khartoum) and 63 control subjects with a mean age ± SD of 13± 3.19 years. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire and an examination check list including dietary, oral habits and DMFT Index (D:diseased, M: missed and F: filled Teeth). Relationship between variables was tested by Chi-square with level of significance P< 0.05.Results: dental caries of diabetic subjects was 60.3% with a DMFT index of 0.09, while that of the control group was 85.7% with a DMFT index of 0.20.The main dietary constituent consumed by the diabetic sample was found to be proteins (76.4%) while in the control it was carbohydrates (71%). The relationship between DMFT and dietary constituents for the control group was found to be statistically significant (P=0.006). DMFT and the number of daily insulin injections of the diabetic sample was statistically significant (P=0.046) Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries and DMFT index were higher in the control group than in the diabetic children.Key words: carbohydrates, diabetes mellitus, bacterial toxins