Abstract
Background: Globally, almost 43 million children below five years of age carry excess body weight, 17% of adolescence and children are presently obese. The prevalence of obesity is about 40-60% because high diet calories in obese children lead to dental caries and teeth problems. Aim: This work aims to determine the relationship between dental caries with obesity in children. Materials and Methods: A systematic search was performed over different medical databases to identify Dentistry studies, which studied the outcome of Caries group versus Caries-free group of obese children. Using the meta-analysis process, either with fixed or random-effects models, we conducted a meta-analysis on the prevalence of obesity as a primary outcome, and on low socioeconomic standard as a secondary outcome. Results: Seven studies were identified involving 6886 patients, 3062 in the Caries group, and 3824 in the Caries-free group. The meta-analysis process revealed a highly significant increase in obesity and low socioeconomic standard in the Caries group compared to the Caries-free group (p<0.05 respectively). Conclusion: To conclude, obesity and dental caries has become increasingly prevalent challenges to public health. Research results in the relationship between obesity and dental caries in children have been mixed and inconclusive.