Objective: The study aimed to determine an association between dental caries and asthma among 12 to 15 years old children.

Methods: This is a school-based cross-sectional study conducted from January to February 2016. A random sample of544 children aged 12-15 years were enrolled from five private schools of Karachi. Dental caries was assessed using DMFT Index (Decayed, Missing, Filled teeth). The main exposure variable was asthma and information on it was collected through the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire.
Results: The data was analyzed using Cox Proportional Hazard algorithm. Crude and adjusted prevalence ratios with 95 % CI were reported. Total 554 children, 306 (56.3%) boys and 43.7% girls participated in the study. Mean age of children was 13.2±0.05 years. Total number of children with DMFT >0 was (30.5%). The decayed component contributed largely (22.8%) to the DMFT score. Overall prevalence of asthma was 20%). Prevalence of caries in asthmatic children was 28.4% as compared to 31% among non-asthmatic children. Adjusted prevalence ratio of dental caries in asthmatic children was 0.8 (95% CI 0.6-1.3) after adjusting for carious food intake, age, oral hygiene index and dentist visit, the association between asthma and dental caries turned out to be in-significant. There was significant interaction between maternal education and consumption of cariogenic food and also between child’s age and oral hygiene (p-value <0.1)

Conclusions: There was no association observed between asthma and dental caries among the children examined in this study.

Key words: Dental caries; asthma;