BACKGROUND: Dental caries is a chronic disease that results from the activity of bacterial biofilm on a tooth surface that is exposed to fermentable carbohydrate substrates over time, leading to demineralization and eventually cavitation. Nutritional counselling is implemented thereby to help people make healthy food choices and form healthy eating habits, that further helps in the prevention of the development of dental caries. The present study focuses on the compliance of outpatients with varying degree of caries risk in individuals visiting a private dental institution. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of the present study was to analyse the caries risk profile and the willingness to comply with nutritional counselling among young patients. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Retrospective analysis of all the cases (dental caries and nutritional counselling) was retrieved among the overall data of patients visiting Saveetha Dental College. A total of 2500 cases were taken for the study, out of which 153 were sorted out and used for the present study. The data was entered in Excel Spreadsheets. Internal criteria included partially or completely edentulous patients, percentage of caries among the study groups and the willingness to comply with nutritional counselling, whereas the external criteria included the patient's name, age, gender, And the collected data was analysed using SPSS software version 19. Chi square test was used to statistically evaluate the results. RESULTS: In the present study, it was found that a higher rate (about 72%) of the partially edentulous patients agreed to nutritional counselling when compared to the completely edentulous patients (about 28%). And also it was found that patients with severe dental caries highly agreed to nutritional counselling than patients with mild and moderate dental, caries risk. CONCLUSION: From the present study, it can be concluded that an overall of the partially edentulous patients complied with nutritional counselling when compared to the completely edentulous patients. And also patients with severe caries risk profile highly agreed to nutritional counselling when compared to the mild and moderate groups. And limited studies were conducted regarding the association between the caries risk profile and nutritional counselling. Further studies are required for early diagnosis of dental caries and for a better treatment protocol

Dental caries, nutritional counseling, balanced diet, caries progress, treatment protocol, innovative analysis.