The Relationship between Dental Caries, Bone Mineral Density, and Bone Metabolism among Adolescents

Abstract

Background: Bone development, particularly important during adolescence, can be affected by a variety of factors that can lead to the development of bone diseases such as osteoporosis or fractures. Whether dental caries is related to skeletal status, or whether lack of calcium affects the teeth, is always the question that clinical patients want to have answered. The present study was aimed to compare the bone mineral density and bone metabolism of adolescents with and without dental caries. Methods: Adolescents were enrolled in the dental caries and caries-free groups, respectively. A questionnaire and clinical oral examination in terms of DMFT scores were conducted. Bone mineral density (BMD) was tested and peripheral blood was collected for bone metabolism assessment. Results: 119 and 140 adolescents were included in the dental caries and caries-free groups. The mean BMD and Z-score of the two groups showed no statistically significant difference. Serum concentrations of ALP, bone alkaline phosphatase, N-terminal osteocalcin, peptide of type I procollagen, and β-cross-linked C-telopeptide of type 1 collagen levels in the dental caries group were significantly lower than in the caries-free group (p < 0.05). Serum calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, 25-OH-VitD, and parathyroid hormone were not statistically different between two groups. Multiple factor logistic regression showed that serum calcium concentration in males had an OR of 2.55 for dental caries (p< 0.001). Conclusions: BMD and majority of bone metabolism indexes were not related with dental caries among Chinese adolescents. For male adolescents, serum calcium level was associated with higher risk of dental caries.