Background: Hereditary angioedema (HAE) symptoms may be triggered by dental procedures, thereby complicating dental care in individuals affected by the condition.
Objective: This study investigated the self-perceived dental care needs, perceived susceptibility to acute angioedema (AE) attacks after dental procedures, and dental care behavior of patients with HAE.
Methods: A self-administered semistructured web-based questionnaire was distributed to 250 adult patients with HAE (type 1 or 2; 88% type 1) and 256 matched non-HAE controls. Data were analyzed using stratified χ2 tests, logistic regression, and classification trees.
Results: A total of 46.4% of HAE versus 55.5% of control patients had dental visits within 6 months (P = .04). Dental insurance was a barrier to seeking routine dental visits among both groups. However, significantly fewer patients with HAE had routine dental visits within 6 months despite having dental insurance compared with control patients (48% vs 60%, P = .01). Within the HAE group, a significantly greater number of patients with dental visits at intervals greater than 6 months had a history of recurrent postprocedural AE attacks (odds ratio [OR]: 3.9 [1.7, 8.8], P = .0005) and used antibacterial toothpaste more frequently than those without recurrent AE attacks (OR: 4.7 [1.5, 15.4], P = .005).
Conclusions: These data support the hypothesis that patients with HAE who are predisposed to having AE episodes in response to medical or physical trauma visit the dentist less and engage in specific oral hygiene practices more frequently than matched control patients and patients with HAE who reported that they were less likely to swell after a dental procedure.
Keywords: Dental hygiene; Health belief model; Hereditary angioedema; Postdental procedure angioedema attacks; Questionnaire survey; Routine dental visit; Teeth brushing frequency.
Copyright © 2020 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.