Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1983

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Anthropology

Major Professor

Benita J. Howell

Committee Members

Michael H. Logan, Mary A. Bass

Abstract

The present study examines caries variability in children, between the ages of 2 and 17, residing in the eastern portion of Tennessee. The purpose was to identify factors which are associated with dental health status in children.

Biographic data on 99 children and their parents were obtained through the use of a questionnaire which was distributed in the offices of two pedodontists with practices in Knoxville. Dental health status was measured by the number of decayed, missing, and filled (DMF) teeth supplied by each child's dental records. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Nie et al. 1975) was used to analyze the data.

The data demonstrated a great variability in the number of DMF teeth among children. Few of the variables derived from the questionnaire were significantly associated with dental health, but children with a history of stress related health disorders, such as allergies and asthma, had a higher rate of dental decay than their non-stressed counterparts. In addition, the data revealed that popular opinions on the cause and prevention of dental decay differed from the professional viewpoint. These findings led the researcher to pursue stress as a possible etiological factor in dental caries and to further examine folk orientations toward dental health.

A questionnaire was sent through mail to the homes of 60 parents who agreed to be contacted by the researcher for further information. This questionnaire elicited information regarding the presence or absence of stress indicators in children. In addition, informants were asked to respond to statements reflecting curative, preventive, internal, and/or external orientations toward dental health.

A T-Test demonstrated that children with a high number of DMF teeth had a higher number of stress indicators than children with a low DMF score. No significant differences were found between parents of high and low DMF children with regard to any of the four orientations (curative, preventive, internal, and/or external) toward dental health. Collectively, the sample favored curative and internal orientations toward dental health.

The relationship between stress and caries was further explored in a sample of children from an Arikara Indian skeletal population. Caries rates were compared between a stressed population from the post-contact Leavenworth site and a non-stressed population from the pre-contact Mobridge 1 site. No significant differences were found between sites with regard to the frequency of caries.

The major finding of this research is that the etiology of dental caries is complex and can not be explained with reference to any single variable. Stress may be an etiological factor involved in human dental caries. More research on stress as well as other psycho-social variables and their relation to dental health is needed.

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