THE EFFECTS OF INSTANT MILK DRINKING METHODS ON CARIES AMONG PRESCHOOLERS

Poltekkes Kemenkes Yogyakarta

2015-10-01

en

Article

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Dental caries or cavity in Indonesia is experienced by approximately 85% of under-five children, and one reason is the habit of drinking milk with a bottle by preschoolers. If it is not addressed properly, it will degrade the quality of child growth and development. This study was conducted to determine the effect of instant milk drinking methods to figure out caries among preschoolers. The study was observational with a cross sectional design. The population was children aged 3-5 years in RA Choirul Fikri, Ngemplak, Sleman, Yogyakarta. The sampling technique was saturated sampling with a sample of 35 children. The independent variable is instant milk drinking method, while the dependent variable was dental caries. Results showed that more children consumed milk formula using a bottle more than glass (51.4%). Ten children (28.6%) who used a bottle turned out to have caries in more than their 5 teeth, in comparison with 9 children (25.7%) who used glass with a number of caries in less than 3 teeth. Spearman Rho test showed there was an effect in instant milk drinking using either bottles or glass against child caries (p = 0.028 and p = 0.034, respectively). In conclusion, instant milk drinking using bottles was more influential in increasing child caries than using glass.