A Comparative Study of Oral Health Parameters in Molar Incisor Hypomineralization and High-Caries-Risk Children Aged 8-11 Years

OBJECTIVE To compare oral health parameters: decayed missing filled teeth (dmft, DMFT), gingival index and plaque index in high-caries-risk children and children with molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH). SUBJECTS AND METHODS A study group of 81 children affected by MIH (49 girls, 32 boys) aged 8-11 years (mean 9.4 ± 1.1) was race-, age- and sex-matched with 81 high-caries-risk children not affected by MIH (controls). The MIH and control groups were divided into four subgroups according to age. The oral health parameters of both groups were recorded under clinical conditions. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the differences in the number of MIH-affected teeth between the groups. Other traits were evaluated with the ANOVA test, and Duncan's multiple comparison tests were used for comparing means. Linear and ordinal regression analyses were used to model the variables. RESULTS The mean age of the participants was 9.4 ± 1.1 years, and the mean number of affected teeth was 7.7 (range 3-12) in the MIH group. The number of affected teeth and severity of MIH did not change significantly with age and sex (p > 0.05). A comparison of the oral health parameters of MIH-affected and control children according to groups did not show any statistically significant differences between the groups for all parameters for all groups (p > 0.05) with the exception of DMFT values at 10 years of age (p < 0.05). In a comparison of the total scores without taking age into account, the children with MIH showed a significantly higher DMFT value than the children without MIH (p < 0.05), but there were no significant differences between the dmft, GI and PI values of the study groups (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION The children in the MIH group had higher DMFT than those without MIH. Hence, the presence of MIH could have a detrimental effect on oral health parameters, especially on DMFT values.