Dental caries in 3-12-year-old Sudanese children with bronchial asthma

Abstract

Background: There is a lack of consensus regarding the relationship between the risk of dental caries and asthma in the child population. Most studies concluded that asthmatic children are at risk of dental caries from the disease status or its pharmacotherapy. The objectives of this study werer to assess the dental caries status of asthmatic patients in the age group of 3-14 years and to examine the possible association of these conditions to various aspects of bronchial asthma and its management. Materials and Methods: The present study is a hospital-based case-control cross-sectional study. One hundred and five asthmatic patients were studied. The children were examined for their dental caries status, and the scores were compared with age-, gender- and socioeconomic status-matched group of 112 nonasthmatic patients selected randomly from public schools (control group). Caries lesions were assessed using decayed, missing, filled teeth/decayed, missing, and filled surfaces (DMFT/DMFS) and dmft/dmfs index according to the WHO criteria (1987). Parents or guardians provided information about oral hygiene and dietary habits by direct interview. Asthma-related data (type and form of medication, severity and duration of asthma) were collected from medical records and/or parental interview. Results: The mean age of asthmatics was (7.7 ± 3.5) years and (7.8 ± 3.5) for nonasthmatics. The results showed significantly higher prevalence and severity of dental caries among asthmatic group. As comparing asthmatic children using β2-agonists to those children using β2-agonists and corticosteroids, the results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in caries index between the two groups. In their primary teeth, children with severe asthma had higher dmft/dmfs than children with moderate and mild asthma unlike in the permanent teeth. Form of medication used - an inhaler or a noninhaler combination (syrup and tablets) - had no effect on caries index. In this study, there was no correlation between duration of asthma and the caries indices. Conclusion: Children suffering from bronchial asthma appear to be at higher risk of having caries. This risk is increased with the severity of bronchial asthma. Form of the medications being used had no effect on caries experience.