Oral-dental hygiene and oral microorganisms in children with and without congenital heart disease

Abstract

Objective This study was done to compare the dental and oral hygiene status of children with and without congenital heart dis- ease (CHD) by investigating oral microorganisms and dental and oral hygiene indices. Methods A cross-sectional study was done on children aged 2 to 15 years from April 2002 to December 2003 at the Department of Child Health, Haji Adam Malik Hospital, Medan. There were two subject groups, the first consisting of children with CHD and the second of those without. The dental and oral hygiene status was determined by determining caries index and oral hygiene index. Swabs from the subjects’ upper first molars were taken and cul- tured to determine the types of microorganisms present. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, and t-test. Results There was a significant difference in mean oral hygiene index between children with (mean 2.75; SD 1.85) and without (mean 1.45; SD 0.78) CHD (P<0.001). Positive bacterial cultures were more frequent in children with CHD than in those without. The proportion of normal anaerobes was significantly higher in chil- dren with CHD (P=0.038). Such a significant difference was not found for normal aerobes, pathogenic aerobes, and pathogenic anaerobes. In children with CHD, there was no significant asso- ciation between mean caries index and oral hygiene index with culture results. In those without CHD, a significant association was found between the caries index components of decayed tooth in- dex (P=0.003) and DMF-T (P=0.022) with culture results. Conclusions Oral-dental hygiene in children with CHD is poor relative to that in children without CHD. Microorganism growth ap- pears more likely in children with CHD than in those without

Keywords

• congenital heart disease
• dental hygiene
• oral hygiene
• oral microorganisms
• caries index
• oral hygiene index