Evaluation of the effect of asthma on tooth decay status, tooth missing and dental anomalies in childhood period retrospectively

Asthma is a widespread, chronic disease of childhood and the incidence is increasing day by day. Various conditions such as increased periodontal disease and caries risk are observed more often than healthy children due to the intra-oral effects of the asthma disease itself and using the asthma drugs. Due to this increased risk, dentists have important duties. Children with asthma and their families need to be informed and educated about this disease, and appropriate oral hygiene and nutrition habits must be acquired. Since the prevalence of asthma is increasing in the pediatric population and there are studies that show how the disease affects oral health and that the drugs used in asthma treatment are caused by various intraoral findings, the purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between asthma disease and tooth decay, tooth missing and dental anomalies by retrospectively examining panoramic radiographs of children who have been diagnosed with asthma before and applied for dental treatment at the Department of Pedodontics at Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Dentistry, between 01 January 2016 and 31 December 2016. A total of 254 patients were enrolled in the study, with children who were between the ages of 6 and 16, who had no other illnesses accompanying asthma, and no systemic health problems. The parameters assessed in children with asthma were decayed tooth, filled tooth, missing tooth, periapical lesion, tooth anomalies and the obtained data were compared with healthy children. It has also been assessed whether the drug or drug combination used in patients with asthma medication is associated with these parameters. The number of decayed teeth in the asthmatic group was significantly higher than the control group (p = 0.006, p <0.01) and the number of filling teeth in the asthmatic group was significantly lower than the control group (p = 0.016; p <0.05). Caries (63.3%) and filling (67.2%) were seen in the primary teeth in the asthmatic group while caries (65.3%) and filling (63.7%) were seen in the permanent teeth in the control group. In asthmatic children, the use of drug or drug combinations was not found to be statistically significant in terms of the parameters assessed, but in children with asthma, as a result of comparison with the application of the drug, only the number of decayed teeth was found to be high in children using tablets (p = 0.005; p <0.017). As a result of this study, it is necessary that early asthma patient's the first dental visit should be regulated; it has been found that it may be beneficial to complete the periodic oral examinations and the necessary treatments, where extensive protective measures may be useful at this stage. We believe that it would be beneficial for children with asthma to have good communication among health and dental care providers and to include dentists in a multidisciplinary team.