Molar-incisor enamel hypomineralization cross-sectional prevalence evaluation in oral-breathing allergic children

Abstract

Objective: Molar-incisor hypomineralization (MIH) is a highly prevalent dental development disturbance caused by dis­rupted ameloblast maturation. This condition affects up to 44% of children around the world and several systemic con­ditions have been associated with MIH, including Mouth-Breathing. It is important to show that MIH has multifacto­rial etiology and is associated with allergic mouth-breathing children. Methods: To evaluate MIH prevalence in MBCS children with positive and negative allergic response to the skin prick test, a cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative comparative assessment was conducted in 23 mouth-breathing children and 25 sex/age-matched siblings. Enamel defects were classified by the modified rate of FDI Development Defects of Enamel. Statistical Student’s t tests were applied to ve­rify the relevance of the data. Results: MIH prevalence showed significant statistical differences in the comparison betwe­en molars, independently of individual age (p = 0.01513474). MBCS children under 5 years old had higher statistical preva­lence of MIH (p = 0.00594). MBCS children with positive skin reactions to the prick test had higher prevalence of MIH (p = 0,023). MBCS children had statistically significant higher prevalence of demarcated opacity (p = 0.00012). Conclusions: Finally, MBCS children with positive skin reactions to the prick test had higher prevalence of MIH (p = 0,023), indicating that mouth-breathing allergy-responsive children had higher MIH prevalence. Our results corroborate our previous hypo­thesis that MBCS children have increased MIH prevalence in comparison to their siblings, with statistical significance (p = 0.01513474). Further investigations with larger samples may enhance and confirm the accuracy of our results.