The prevalance of black stained teeth, identification of associated factors of 3-6 years children and determination of family awareness

Black stain may be clinically diagnosed as pigmented dark lines parallel to the gingival margin or as an incomplete coalescence of dark dots rarely extending beyond the cervical third of the crown. There is no consensus in the literature concerning the prevalence of black stain among age groups. However, most studies of children have focused on permanent teeth and there is no data regarding the prevalence and clinical characteristics of black stain on the primary teeth of Turkish children or its possible association with dental caries. First aim of this study is to determine black stain prevalance, associating factors and etiology by the questionarres and to investigate the association between black tooth stains and caries in the primary dentition in 3-6 years old children attended to K.T.U., Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Paediatric Dentistry. Second aim is to determine parental awareness status. As a cross sectional study, 257 patients were examined and parents were applied a questionnare which have 5 main topics including sociodemographic factors, dietary habits, oral hygiene habits, professional dental care and systemic disease. Dmft indexes and absence/presence of black stains were recorded. Statistical analyses were completed with Mann Whitney U, Chi-Square and multivariate logistic regression tests. The significance level was set as p<0.05. Prevalance of black stain was found as 15.56 %. Significant differences were cariogenic diet (p<0.01), protein-calcium based diet (p<0.05), dmft (p<0.05) and systemic disease (p<0.05). By the way, multivariate logistic regression model was revealed to determine effective factors such as dmft (p=0.003) and systemic disease (p=0.031). Parental awareness was found as 82.5 %. Parents showed higher awareness status at lower age groups.