IMPE Abstracts

Introduction: Dental caries carries a high global prevalence particularly in children and adolescents with diabetes. Salivary flow rate and glucose levels have been implicated in the higher prevalence. However, some studies show controversial results of lower dental caries in children with diabetes compared to healthy children. There is lack of data on this topic in the Arab region where both diabetes and dental caries are common. We aim to compare the prevalence of dental caries in a cohort of children with diabetes and controls in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Method: Children with diabetes between 2 and 19 years were recruited from the paediatric endocrine clinics. Age-matched controls were recruited from the general paediatric clinic. All children were examined by a dentist and a dental assistant. A dental chart is used to mark teeth with caries, filling or missing. Number of teeth was counted and classified into primary, mixed and permanent dentition. DMFT (dental missing filling teeth) score is filled and DMFT percentage is calculated. WHO quantification for the DMFT index was applied based on the grading of 0-1.1 (very low), 1.2 – 2.6 (low), 2.7- 4.4 (moderate), 4.5- 6.6 (high) and > 6.6 very high. t-test was used to test the statistical significance between the groups.

Results: Forty-one children with diabetes (23 females) and 57 controls (32 females) were enrolled in the study. Mean (range) age was 12.1 (2.9-18.2) and 10.22 (2.0-17.7) for children with diabetes and controls respectively. Mean (range) of diabetes duration was 4.02 (0.1-11.4) years and average HbA1c was 10.8% (range 7.5 -15.3%). Mean DMFT percentage for children with diabetes was 17 compared with 17.73 for controls which showed no statistical significance (P=0.4). WHO quantification for the DMFT index comparison for primary teeth showed an average of 4.66 (high) and 4.0 (moderate) for children with diabetes and controls respectively (P=0.44). Mixed dentition showed an average of 5.06 (high) in children with diabetes compared to 5.5 (high) for controls (P=0.36). For permanent dentition, children with diabetes had a mean of 4.08 (moderate) compared to 3.76 in control children (P=0.36).

Conclusion: Our study did not confirm the hypothesis of dental caries being of higher prevalence in children with diabetes compared to healthy children. Regular dental checks for children with diabetes might be a factor in reducing its prevalence.