Dental caries in children with Down syndrome and associated factors

The sample consisted of children between 6 and 12 years old being 67 with DS and 46 without DS. Caries experience and gingival bleeding index were recorded. Questionnaire with socio-demographic questions was applied to children’s caregivers. Crude and adjusted prevalence ratios for caries in primary and permanent teeth were calculated by means of Poisson regression with robust variance.

Results:

Children with DS and without DS showed similar results for caries experience. Only age was associated with caries at permanent teeth. None of the variables were associated with caries at primary teeth in both groups of children.

Conclusion:

It can be concluded that social factors and access to dental services analyzed in this study were not associated with dental caries in children with DS syndrome. Furthermore, caries experience for children with DS and those without the syndrome were not different based on this study.

Indexing terms
Down syndrome; Dental caries; Social indicators

Variable		Children without DS	Children with DS	p value
Age (mean ± SD)		8.72 ± 1.86	8.88 ± 2.03	0.67
Gender
	Female	56.5%	41.8%	0.12

Main caregiver
	Mother	n=19 (41.3%)	n=51 (76.1%)	< 0.01

Economic status
	Low	15.6%	13.4%	0.62
	Medium	66.7%	74.7%
	High	17.7%	11.9%

Mother’s educational level				0.67
	> 11 years	57.2%	59.4%

Mother’s perception about child’s oral health				0.52
	Good	56.5%	55.2%

Reason of first visit to dentist				0.82
	Pain	6.5%	4.5%
	Prevention	65.2%	70.1%
	Other	28.3%	25.4%

Place of first visit to dentist				0.001
	Public dental service	39.1%	29.9%
	Private dental service	30.4%	13.4%
	Other	2.2%	31.3%
	Never visit dentist	28.3%	25.4%

		Caries in primary teeth			Caries in permanent teeth
		PRc (95%CI)	PRa (95%CI)		PRc (95%CI)	PRa (95%CI)
Age		0.93 (0.81-1.07)^& & p> 0.10;			1.22 (1.00-1.48)^* * p< 0.05.	1.22 (1.00-1.48)^* * p< 0.05.
Gender	Male	1			1
	Female	0.89 (0.53-1.47)^& & p> 0.10;			0.64 (0.89-1.47)^& & p> 0.10;
Down syndrome	With DS	0.86 (0.52-1.44)^& & p> 0.10;			0.55 (0.25-1.19)^& & p> 0.10;
	Without DS	1			1
Gingival Bleeding index		1.01 (0.99-1.03)^# # p<0.10;	1.01 (0.99-1.03)^& & p> 0.10;		1.01 (0.99-1.03)^& & p> 0.10;
Main caregiver	Mother	0.77 (0.44-1.36)^& & p> 0.10;			0.72 (0.33–1.54)^& & p> 0.10;
	Other	1			1
Mother’s educational level	< 11 years	1	1		1
	> 11 years	0.60 (0.35-1.01)^# # p<0.10;	0.67 (0.37-1.23)^& & p> 0.10;		0.67 (0.30-1.49)^& & p> 0.10;
Mother’s perception about child’s oral health	Bad	1	1		1
	Good	0.62 (0.38-1.02)^# # p<0.10;	1.17 (0.65-2.11)^& & p> 0.10;		0.77 (0.29-2.03)^& & p> 0.10;
Reason of first visit to dentist	Never visit dentist	1			1
	Pain	1.78 (0.69-4.61)^& & p> 0.10;			2.25 (0.53-9.58)^& & p> 0.10;
	Prevention	1.00 (0.55-1.83)^& & p> 0.10;			1.33 (0.48-3.66)^& & p> 0.10;
Place of first visit to dentist	Public dental service	1.25 (0.66-2.36)^& & p> 0.10;			2.19 (0.79-6.05)^& & p> 0.10;
	Private dental service	1.02 (0.80-2.15)^& & p> 0.10;			0.88 (0.22-3.53)^& & p> 0.10;
	Other	0.70 (0.28-1.75)^& & p> 0.10;			0.61 (0.12-3.04)^& & p> 0.10;
	Never visit dentist	1			1
Economic status	High	1			1
	Medium	1.32 (0.55-3.19)^& & p> 0.10;		1.00 (0.61-6.20)^& & p> 0.10;
	Low	2.04 (0.78-5.31)^& & p> 0.10;		1.54 (0.39-6.01)^& & p> 0.10;

Faculdade São Leopoldo Mandic R. José Rocha Junqueira, 13, 13045-755 Campinas/SP Brasil, Tel.: (55 19) 3211-3689 - Campinas - SP - Brazil
E-mail: contato@revistargo.com.br

Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

[1] Correspondence to: LN HASHIZUME. E-mail: lhashizume@yahoo.com.