Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a severe form of dental decay with multi-factorial origin. ECC can significantly affect the child’s quality of life, as it may lead to infection, swelling, pain, and other symptoms. The ECC affects children after eruption of primary teeth until age of around 5 years. Aim of the study: Investigating the etiology and risk factors predisposing ECC among children and the optimal interventions for prevention. Methods: We searched the medical literature to retrieve studies for the review to 30 November 2017. We searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library websites for English Publications that were obtained from both reprint requests and by searching the database. Data extracted included authors, country, year of publication, characteristics of patients, pathophysiology, risk factors, clinical manifestations, different diagnostic approaches and prevention modalities.
Conclusion: The increase in the prevalence over time is mainly behind increased exposure to risk factors and increased number of teeth at risk. Predisposing and risk factors include living in a non-fluoridated county, low socioeconomic status and poor dietary behaviors. Preventive measures involve community, homecare and professional interventions to avoid risk factors which require to be followed with discipline in order to avoid potential incidence of ECC in the first place. We further recommended preventive strategies by increasing public awareness such as promotion of community-based interventions conducted by dental hygienists and the Inclusion of oral health screening in new child health immunization schedules and insurance legislation for children.
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