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. 2019 Feb 28;19(1):37.
doi: 10.1186/s12903-019-0727-3.

Erosive tooth Wear in special Olympic athletes with intellectual disabilities

F Marro  1   2 , C Fernandez  3 , L Martens  4 , W Jacquet  5   6 , L Marks  3
Affiliations

Erosive tooth Wear in special Olympic athletes with intellectual disabilities

F Marro et al. BMC Oral Health. .

Abstract

Background: Special Olympics (SO) events represent an opportunity to obtain considerable information regarding intellectual disable (ID) patients. Studies done with SO data have shown an overview of the oral health status of these athletes; however, no information exists regarding the erosive tooth wear (ETW). Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the presence and severity of ETW in athletes with ID who participated in the SO Belgium 2016.

Methods: The study population consisted in 232 athletes with ID who participated in the SO special smiles program, Belgium 2016. For analysis, the sample was divided in three groups: a) athletes with ID under the age of 25 not diagnosed with Down Syndrome (DS) (n = 174), b) athletes with DS under the age of 25 (n = 39) and c) athletes with DS from 25 and older ages (n = 58). Two calibrated dentists performed dental examinations using the Basic Erosive Wear Examination Index (BEWE). The BEWE sum > 0 was used to determine prevalence of ETW. Severity was determined by two- indicators: 1) By risk levels (low, medium and high risk) proposed by the BEWE index, and 2) by the highest score reached per subject in at least one tooth (BEWE1, 2 or 3). Chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to detect significant differences among different groups (p < 0.05).

Results: The prevalence of ETW for young athletes with ID was 51.14%. Within these athletes, the DS group presented a significant higher mean BEWE sum (4.67, SD 5.64) and prevalence of ETW (69.2%BEWE> 0) when compared to athletes without DS (mean BEWE sum: 1.96, SD 3.47 and 46.3% BEWE> 0; p < 0.05). Furthermore, a significantly higher percentage of athletes with DS were considered at high risk of ETW (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: As a conclusion, half of the young athletes with ID presented at least one affected surface with ETW. The recorded prevalence and severity of ETW for the younger group of athletes with DS was distinctly higher than the athletes with ID not having DS. This shows the need to generate knowledge in order to provide correct management and prevention of erosive tooth wear in populations with ID.

Keywords: Down syndrome; Erosive tooth wear; Patients with intellectual disability; Special Olympics athletes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval was obtained from the local ethical committee of the Ghent University Hospital according to the “ICH Good Clinical Practice” of the declaration of Helsinki (2016/0461). Written inform consent from the athlete and/or the legal guardian was obtained.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean BEWE sum scores for young athletes with ID with and without Down syndrome (up to 25-year-old)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
ETW risk in athletes with ID according to cut-offs values of Bartlett et al. 2008. No risk: BEWE sum > 0 up to 2; Low risk: BEWE sum > 2 up to 8; Medium risk: BEWE sum > 8 up to 13; High risk: BEWE sum > 13 up to 18. *P < 0.05 Pearson Chi-Square comparing risk differences between young groups of athletes with ID
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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