A total of 670 Uygur children underwent complete
dental caries examination and had questionnaires completed
by parents or caregivers. The mean age of the
children was 4.13 ± 0.80 years; 51.3% were girls and
48.7% were boys. The majority of the children (74.2%)
had caries, with a mean dmft ± SD of 3.95 ± 3.84. The
prevalence of S-ECC was 40.1% (N =269), with a mean
dmft of 7.72 ± 3.14. Most of the caries found were untreated
(dt =3.94 ± 3.82; over 99%).
Increasing age correlated with increased prevalence and
severity of caries. There was no significant correlation
between ECC and gender. Prevalence by age and gender is
shown in Table 1. The prevalence of dental caries by tooth
position is shown in Figure 1. Caries was more often
present in the mandibular primary molars than in their
maxillary counterparts. In contrast, the mandibular anterior
teeth were less affected by dental caries compared with
their maxillary counterparts. Canine teeth had the lowest
caries prevalence in both the maxillary and mandibular
dental arches. The maxillary incisors had a higher caries
prevalence than the mandibular incisors (23% versus 2%).
Both maxillary and mandibular molars had a high caries
prevalence, with the mandibular second molars the most
frequently affected teeth. Slightly more than half (51%) of
the children had caries in their maxillary posterior teeth.
Table 2 shows the children’s socioeconomic backgrounds,
including mother’s education level, father’s education
level, family annual income, and family size. ECC was
significantly more prevalent among children from a
relatively lower socioeconomic background characterized
by lower parental education level (p =0.000), lower family
income (p =0.000), and larger family size (p =0.047).
While not statistically significant (p =0.058), children exposed
to cigarette smoke at home were more likely to
have ECC