Dental caries status of children with bronchial asthma.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the dental caries status in children with bronchial asthma and to examine the correlation with the severity of asthma and the form of medication being taken. Two hundred and five asthmatic children of both sexes from three to eighteen years old participated in this study. Children were divided into groups: primary, mixed and permanent dentitions. They were also grouped depending on the severity of asthma into mild, moderate and severe asthma and depending on the form of medication being used into inhaler, syrup, tablet and combination group. In the primary dentition group, the asthmatic children had a mean deft of 5.02 +/- 3.05 and a caries prevalence of 75.75%, in the mixed dentition group, the mean deft was 3.45 +/- 2.89 and mean DMFT was 4.83 +/- 3.66 with a caries prevalence of 78.31%. In the permanent dentition the mean DMFT was 5.17 +/- 4.54 and a caries prevalence of 83.15%. Asthmatic children had a high caries prevalence and it increased with the severity of bronchial asthma. The caries prevalence was highest in those taking medication in the form of syrup.