Effect of dental care programme and fluoridation in the prevention of dental caries in asthmatic children

Objective: to investigate the effect of a regular dental care programme on the dental health of asthmatic children. methods: this prospective,controlled study was conducted at dokuz eylul university,izmir,turkey,between 2012 and 2014,and comprised asthmatic and non-asthmatic children between 4 and 16 years of age who used inhaler corticosteroid treatment for at least 1 year. patients were examined for dental caries,gingival index,salivary flow rate,and salivary ph values at baseline,6 months,and at the end of the first year. demographic features and tooth-brushing habits of the asthmatic and non-asthmatic children were also analysed. spss 20 was used for data analysis. results: of the 102 patients,there were 51(50%) each in asthmatic and non-asthmatic groups. besides,38(70.6%) participants were boys and 15(29.4%) were girls in the first group compared to 30(58.8%) boys and 21(41.2%) girls in the second group. the mean age was 11.16±3.10 years and 10.33±2.62 years,respectively,in the two groups. the number of asthmatic patients was 45(88.2%) in visit 2 and 37(72.5%) in visit 3,whereas the number of participants for the control group was 41(80.4%) in visit 2 and 36(70.4%) in visit 3. during the first visit,mean values for salivary ph and flow rate were 7.135 0.15 and 3.878 0.71 ml/min among asthma patients,and 7.158 0.14 and 4.684 0.50 among controls. in the first visit,the rate of gingivitis was 31(60.8%) in asthmatic children and 12(23.5%) in the control group. during the third visit,the rate was 4(11.1%) and 5(13.5%) among the two groups,respectively. conclusions: decreased salivary flow rates associated with the drugs used by asthmatic patients caused an increase in the rate of dental caries and gingival disorders. © 2016,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.