What is it about?
Early childhood malnutrition is associated with dental caries, enamel hypoplasia, salivary gland hypofunction, and delayed eruption. Poor oral health is associated with tooth decay, periodontal disease, and lesions in other oral tissues among children and older adults. This correlation between malnutrition adversely affects the oral structures and poor oral health, which in turn, leads to poor nutrition (Malnutrition).
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Why is it important?
Nutrition is the intake of food, considered in relation to the body’s dietary requirements. Good nutrition is an appropriate, well-balanced diet combined with regular physical activity which is a keystone of good health. Poor nutrition (Malnutrition) can lead to reduced immunity, increased susceptibility to disease, impaired physical and mental development, and reduced productivity. Malnutrition is a condition that develops when the body does not get the right amount of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ functions. Malnutrition affects oral health and poor oral health, therefore, leads to malnutrition. Good nutritional health aids good oral health and vice versa, this interrelationship between good oral health and good nutritional health leads to homeostasis. Malnutrition alters this homeostasis leading to decrease resistance to the microbial biofilm, decrease in immune response and capacity of tissue healing is lowered. Malnutrition leads to disease development in the oral cavity. Studies have indicated that enamel hypoplasia, saliva compositional changes, and salivary gland hypofunction may be the mechanisms by which malnutrition is associated with caries, where altered eruption timing may create a challenge in the analysis of the age-specific caries rates. Malnutrition is wide-ranging in rural, tribal, and urban slum areas. Malnourishment in children is due to adverse cultural practices, destruction of the environment, gender inequality, inaccessible medical care, lack of education, large family size, overpopulation, and poverty. Poor oral health, including tooth decay, periodontal disease, and lesions in other oral tissues among older adults can profoundly diminish the quality of life and have an adverse impact on general health.
Perspectives
Various studies have shown that malnutrition affects tooth eruption patterns, enamel hypoplasia, dental caries prevalence, and periodontal ligament. They also have other effects on the oral cavity, like inflammation of the lining of the oral cavity, salivary gland hypofunction, the tongue, and oral ulcers. Malnutrition is a risk to oral health and poor oral health, in turn, leads to malnutrition with unfavorable socio-demographic factors, which calls for a need to improve the living conditions and adequate utilization of available health and nutritional supplementary services through an intersectoral approach.
Dr. Madhusudhan K Siddaiah
Krishnadevaraya College of Dental Sciences, India
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Effects of Malnutrition on Pediatric Oral Health: A Review, December 2022, IntechOpen,
DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.106724.
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