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. 2018 Jun 19:9:52.
doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_401_15. eCollection 2018.

Dental Caries and Gingival Evaluation in Children with Congenital Heart Disease

Zahra Pourmoghaddas  1 , Marzieh Meskin  2 , Mohammadreza Sabri  1 , Maryam Haj Norousali Tehrani  3 , Tahereh Najafi  1
Affiliations

Dental Caries and Gingival Evaluation in Children with Congenital Heart Disease

Zahra Pourmoghaddas et al. Int J Prev Med. .

Abstract

Background: Dental health is one of the most important health burdens of children health. The association between dental health and endocarditis has been already demonstrated, but there is controversy about different frequency of dental caries, periodontitis, and saliva microorganism in comparison to healthy population and children with congenital heart diseases (CHDs). In this study, we evaluated these differences.

Methods: Seventy-six healthy children and 68 CHD patients were enrolled in the present case-control study. Dental decay, periodontitis, oral microorganisms, serum calcium, phosphorus, and frequency of carbohydrate and protein consumption of all participants were evaluated by standards method.

Results: CHD patients experienced more periodontitis, but the difference was not significant (0.12 vs. 0.09, P = 0.2). In healthy children, the mean saliva colony counts of Streptococcus mutans were more significant (50639 ± 3324 vs. 35285 ± 27226, P = 0.03), which was diminished by adjusting the carbohydrate consumption. The mean colony count of Lactobacilli in children with CHD was nonsignificant higher than healthy children (P = 0.3).

Conclusions: Pediatric patients with CHD experience insignificantly higher dental decay, periodontitis, and saliva Lactobacilli colony counts. The frequency of decayed tooth and gingival diseases in healthy children is high, and hence, more dental care attention in our health system is needed for healthy children.

Keywords: Congenital heart disease; dental caries; periodontal disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

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