Primary Teeth Eruption among Children of pre-term Birth

Abstract

Objective: The purposes of this study were to compare the eruption status of primary teeth between children of pre-term and full-term birth and to evaluate the effects of neonatal factors and nutritional status on primary teeth eruption. Subjects & Methods: We recruited 72 pre-term, and 141 full-term birth children (aging from 6 months to 43 months) in Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University (KMUH). Oral and medical examinations were performed by a pediatric dentist and pediatricians, respectively. Medical charts and questionnaires were used to collect other neonatal and nutritional factors. Two-way ANOVA was utilized to compare the results, and the p value lower than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: When using chronological age in the calculation, children of pre-term birth had slightly delayed primary teeth eruption than those of full-term birth (p=0.0126), but only for children in the group aged 6-11 months (3.13 ± 0.44 and 4.82 ± 0.42, respectively, p=0.0079) .When using corrected age in the calculation, children of pre-term birth did not have significant delayed primary teeth eruption compared with those of full-term birth (p=0.9392). No specific neonatal factor or nutritional factor had impact on the total numbers of eruption teeth (all the p values were higher than 0.05). Conclusion: Eruption status of primary teeth of pre-term birth children was not significantly different from that of full-term birth children, and no specific neonatal factor or nutritional factor had impact on it. However, the corrected age of pre-term birth must be born in mind.