Limitations
We used a self-administered questionnaire to register all potential associated factors. This could have determined a shift to more socially desirable answers, even though this does not appear to be the case in our study, since even self-reporting demonstrated a wide-spread diffusion of associated factors in our population. Moreover, the cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow any cause-effect relationship, since data on “associated factors” and “outcomes” are assessed at the same time. Nonetheless, this study represents a useful way to determine the prevalence of ECC and S-ECC and, eventually, to identify differences among subgroups disaggregated by social demographics, infant feeding practices, oral hygiene habits, and access to dental services, in order to target preventive interventions on those subjects that manifest poorer oral health. As with any survey based on a self-administered questionnaire, information resulting from the memory of parents may not be entirely accurate, primarily because of the long time frame used in the study that may have introduced recall bias. On the other hand, longer time frames are useful for formulating broad prevalence estimates in a context in which no data are available. Finally, problems regarding representativeness and generalizability should be taken into account, and we believe that the sampling methods and the high response rate allows us to be confident on the representativeness of the chosen sample and that our results may be generalized to children living in the Southern part of Italy.