Mineralization Disturbances in Jordanian Children and Adolescents with Celiac Disease

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the presence and distribution of enamel defects and decayed-missed-filled teeth (DMF-T) in children and adolescents with mixed and permanent dentition who were diagnosed with celiac disease and to compare their oral findings with age and gender matched control group. Methods:A prospective study was conducted at King Hussein Medical Center on a total of 86 patients. Forty-three patients with celiac disease who were regular attendants to the pediatric gastrointestinal clinic were compared to 43 healthy dental patients who attended the general dental practice outpatient clinic at the same hospital and were selected to match the study group by age and gender. Enamel surfaces were explored clinically for the presence and distribution of any symmetrical defects or hypo-plastic changes and scored according to the classification proposed by Aien which consists of four grades. Both study and control groups were examined for the number of decayed, missed and filled teeth (DMF-T) index. Results:In both of the study and control groups, there were 26 females (60.5%) and 17 (39.5%) males. The mean age was 13.22±2.85 years for the study group and 13.35±2.59 years for the control group. Out of a total 86 patients, 37 (86.1%) of the celiac group was found to have enamel defects which was significantly higher than the control group (P value 0.007). The distribution of enamel defects was more in anterior than posterior teeth. The primary teeth in mixed dentition had shown zero enamel defects in both groups. The mean Decayed, Missed, Filled Teeth (DMF-T) was 7.15 for the study group while 6.78 for the control group with the P-value of 0.03 (decayed) 0.055 (missed) and 0.001 (filled). Caries free subjects comprise of 1 (2.32%) versus 11 (25.58%) in the study and control groups respectively. Conclusion:The celiac group showed statistically significant more enamel defect and decayed and less filled teeth compared to the control group.