Do hemophiliacs have a higher risk for dental caries than the general population?

Rūta Žaliūnienė; Jolanta Aleksejūnienė; Vilma Brukienė; Vytautė Pečiulienė

doi:10.1016/j.medici.2015.01.003

Do hemophiliacs have a higher risk for dental caries than the general population?

Medicina (Kaunas). 2015;51(1):46-56. doi: 10.1016/j.medici.2015.01.003. Epub 2015 Jan 28.

Authors

Rūta Žaliūnienė¹, Jolanta Aleksejūnienė², Vilma Brukienė³, Vytautė Pečiulienė³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Dentistry, Medical Faculty, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania. Electronic address: zaliuniene@gmail.com.
² Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
³ Institute of Dentistry, Medical Faculty, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.

PMID: 25744775
DOI: 10.1016/j.medici.2015.01.003

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine if patients with hemophilia were at increased risk for dental decay as compared to the general population.

Materials and methods: Census sampling was used in this case-control study to recruit cases (patients with hemophilia) and a control group individuals recruited randomly from the general population, which were matched with cases based on gender, age and place of residence. Clinical examinations included dental health and salivary assessments (flow rate, buffer capacity, caries-associated bacteria) and a structured questionnaire which inquired about socioeconomic status and dental health-related behaviors.

Results: In the deciduous dentition, the overall caries experience (dmf) differed statistically significantly (P=0.003) between the hemophiliacs (2.6±2.6) and their matched healthy controls (6.1±2.5). Bivariate analyses did not reveal significant differences between cases and controls regarding salivary functions, except that higher bacteriological counts were found in healthy controls in deciduous dentitions than in patients with hemophilia (P=0.019). Children without hemophilia were from higher socioeconomic status families than hemophiliacs (P=0.004), but such differences were not found for adults (P=0.090). When compared to healthy adults, adult hemophiliacs had more gum bleeding at rest (P<0.001) as well as during their tooth brushing (P=0.007) and they also consumed more soft drinks than controls (P=0.025).

Conclusions: Better dental health was observed in children with hemophilia as compared to children without it. There were no differences in dental health between adult hemophiliacs and healthy controls from the general population. None of the linear multiple regression models confirmed hemophilia to be an additional caries risk when it was controlled for other caries determinants.

Keywords: Dental caries; Dental indices; Dental public health; Hemophiliacs; Matched controls.

MeSH terms

Adult
Case-Control Studies
Child
Dental Caries / epidemiology*
Female
Hemophilia A / epidemiology*
Humans
Lithuania / epidemiology
Male
Oral Health*
Social Class
Tooth, Deciduous
Toothbrushing / statistics & numerical data