Abstract
Introduction: Purpose of this research is to assess the relationship between long-term pediatric liquid medicines (PLMs) consumption and dental caries in 2–12-years-old chronically ill children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in a public pediatric hospital in India for a period of 6 months. A total of 455 children aged 2–12 years old with various chronic diseases who were receiving PLMs for more than 6 months were selected as the subjects in this study and compared with 531 children of similar age group and diseases who received other forms of medication. Dental caries was measured by DMFT/dmft and data collected were analyzed with SPSS (17th version) using statistical tests such as t-test and one-way ANOVA. Univariable logistic regression was used where the significance was fixed at a a p value of less than 0.001. Results: Children on PLMs had an increased risk of dental caries than those on other forms of medications (OR: 3.142, 95% CI: 2.37–4.15, p < 0.001). The prevalence of dental caries was higher (77.8%) in children consuming PLMs when compared to other forms of medication (52.7%). The mean DMFT and dmft scores were significantly higher in the study group when compared to the control group (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Long-term consumption of pediatric liquid medicines containing sucrose as a risk factor for dental caries among chronically ill children. sugar free options has to be used during prescription to prevent medication-triggered caries.Keywords: Paediatric liquid medicine, medication-triggered caries, sugar-free medication
Highlights
Paediatric liquid medicines (PML) most often contain sucrose as a sweetening agent to mask the bitterness of active ingredients and make it more palatable; this may be a risk factor for dental caries
Ill children suffering from various diseases, such as epilepsy, malnutrition, asthma, nephrotic syndrome, congenital heart diseases and anaemia, require intake of liquid medicines on long-term basis which predisposes them to dental caries.[9,10]
Our study revealed that children who were under paediatric liquid medicines (PLMs) treatment had three times higher of dental caries risk than those who were not under paediatric liquid medicines (PLMs) treatment (OR 3.142; 95% CI (2.37 to 4.15); p = 0.001) (Table 5)
Summary
Paediatric liquid medicines (PML) most often contain sucrose as a sweetening agent to mask the bitterness of active ingredients and make it more palatable; this may be a risk factor for dental caries. Conclusion: Long-term consumption of pediatric liquid medicines containing sucrose as a risk factor for dental caries among chronically ill children. Liquid medicines in the form of syrups are commonly prescribed to children as a part of therapy in treatment of various chronic and acute infections These pediatric liquid medicines (PLMs) often contain sugar in the form of sucrose, which is added to increase the palatability and biocompatibility of the medicines.[1] PLMs posses a low pH, a high concentration of sugars, and a high titratable acidity which are considered as risk factors for dental caries.[2,3,4,5] Accumulating evidence from various studies[6,7,8] has pointed out a possible relationship between dental caries and long-term consumption of liquid oral medicines. There are similar reports[13,14] which provide evidence that PLMs are the most commonly prescribed drugs when compared to other forms of medicines and, creating awareness among pediatricians regarding the adverse effects of sugar-based PLMs is an utmost priority
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