Comparison of temperaments of children with and without baby bottle tooth decay.

Several demographic studies have been done to identify children at risk for Baby Bottle Tooth Decay (BBTD). Discussions have described these children with Baby Bottle Tooth Decay as strong tempered, cranky, restless, and fussy. The parents of these children have acknowledged these behaviors. To determine whether there were differences in temperament, children with Baby Bottle Tooth Decay were compared with children without Baby Bottle Tooth Decay by assessing the nine temperament components described by the Toddler Temperament Scale (TTS) questionnaire. Parents completed the temperament questionnaire and ninety-two children between twelve and thirty-six months old were studied. Scores for the nine temperament components were tabulated and temperament difficulty was determined as defined by the authors of the toddler Temperament Scale. At-test comparison between the two groups revealed no significant difference for the nine temperament components. There was also no difference when comparing clusters of the nine components. The conclusion is that there is no difference in the temperaments between the group of children with Baby Bottle Tooth Decay and the comparison group of children without Baby Bottle Tooth Decay.