Prevalence of developmental defects of enamel in children and adolescents with asthma: a cross-sectional study.

AIM The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of developmental defects of enamel in children with asthma and its relation to specific characteristics of disease such as symptom onset, asthma severity and treatment initiation in pediatric asthma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Children and adolescents (104 asthma patients and 104 control subjects), 7-14 years of age and residents of the city of Chennai were enrolled in the study. Medical and dental histories were obtained through the use of structured questionnaire. Each participant underwent a dental examination in which the examiner applied the modified developmental defect index. RESULTS The prevalence of DDE in this study was as follows: of the 104 asthma group subjects, 80 (76.9%) presented with dental enamel defects, compared with only 28 (26.9%) of those in the control group. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, the estimated risk of DDE in permanent dentition was 12 times higher in pediatric subjects with asthma than in those without asthma (OR - 12.526, P = 0.001). The occurrence of dental enamel defects correlated with greater asthma severity (P = 0.001) and earlier symptom onset (P = 0.001). However, dental enamel defects did not correlate with the timing of the initiation of treatment (P = 0.041). CONCLUSION Pediatric asthma patients with severe, early onset asthma are at increased risk of dental enamel defects and therefore require priority dental care.