Correlation of Child Temperament with Severity of Early Childhood Caries in Children Aged 3-6 Years

Objective: To check the correlation of child temperament with severity of early childhood caries in children aged 3-6 years. Design of the Study: It’s a cross-sectional study. Study Settings: The study was conducted at Department of Dentistry and Oral Pathology, Bakhtawar Amin Medical and Dental College, Multan from August 2020 to August 2021. Material and Methods: Total 700 children aged between 3-6 years who fulfill the inclusion criteria were selected along with their parents/ primary caregivers. In the present study temperament was assessed using Thomas and Chess’s parent temperament questionnaire. Both intensity and frequency of occurrence of that particular behavior was considered, each entity is scored on a five (5) point scale. Rating is done on negative and positive directions in which scores of 1-5 represent the extremes of intensity and frequency of occurrence of that behavior. At the midpoint, score of 3 is average according to the parent’s insights. Results of the Study: Among the study group of, 24% belonged to the age group 3 years, 29% belonged to age group 4 years, 27% belonged to the age group 5 years and 20% belonged to the age group 6 years. Forty nine percent among the study group were male participants whereas 51% were female participants. Fifty percent of the participants among the study population had caries while 46% of the study participants were free of caries. The results showed that children with caries had lower overall temperament scores (36.49± 5.67) compared to subjects without caries (38.82± 5.43).There was a statistically significant correlation with p<0.001. Conclusion: There was a significant correlation between child temperament scores of Sociability, Energy and Emotionality and Caries Severity Index scores. No correlation could be established with Attentivity and Rhythmicity scores. It can be concluded that in early childhood caries child temperament is a risk factor. Keywords: Temperament, Early Childhood Caries