Prevalence of developmental defects of enamel in children and adolescents with asthma.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of developmental defects of enamel (DDEs) in relation to asthma severity, symptom onset and pharmacological treatment in pediatric asthma patients.
METHODS: Children and adolescents (68 asthma patients and 68 controls), 5-15 years of age and residents of the city of Londrina, Brazil, were enrolled in the study. Medical and dental histories were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. Each participant underwent a dental examination in which the examiner employed the DDE index.
RESULTS: Of the 68 asthma group subjects, 61 (89.7%) presented dental enamel defects, compared with only 26 (38.2%) of those in the control group. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, we estimated the risk of DDEs in permanent dentition to be 11 times higher in pediatric subjects with asthma than in those without (OR = 11.88, p = 0.0001). The occurrence of dental enamel defects correlated with greater asthma severity (p = 0.0001) and earlier symptom onset (p = 0.0001). However, dental enamel defects did not correlate with the initiation of treatment (p = 0.08) or the frequency of medication use (p = 0.93).
CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric patients with severe, early-onset asthma are at increased risk of dental enamel defects and therefore require priority dental care.