Oral Health Condition of Children Living with HIV

Abstract

Background: AIDS progression is faster in children than adults. Little is known about the oral health status of children living with HIV. Aim: To carry out a literature review about the oral health conditions of children living with HIV in order to observe if this specific population presents different oral health conditions compared to children without HIV infection. Methods: A documental study of literature review was carried out. Studies were searched at PubMed using "oral health", "children", "HIV" and "AIDS" as keywords. Papers published between 2001 and 2011 were included. After applying the exclusion criteria and complete reading of the selected studies, other articles were selected from the references lists of the first ones. Results: Firstly, 24 studies were identified. Among them, 65.5% were excluded according to the exclusion criteria. From the five selected articles, another five from the references of these were included. Only one article compared the oral health conditions of children living with HIV with controls without HIV infection. Conclusions: Only 10 papers contained information on the oral health conditions of children living with HIV, and just one compared the results with controls. The few studies found were insufficient to establish the oral health condition profile of children living with HIV. This lack of information could represent the lack of interest of researchers and health authorities in more integrative care and can result in neglect with this specific population of children.