Evaluation of the effects of vitamin D level on oral-dental health, dental age and trabecular structure in children

Aim: Although it is known that vitamin D level is associated with many health problems, it also has an effect on oral and dental health. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of vitamin D deficiency on oral and dental health also tooth development and jaw bones. Material and Method: In this thesis study, 70 pediatric patients aged 4-13 years were diagnosed with a deficiency with serum 25(OH)D levels below 20 ng/ml and 70 pediatric patients aged 4-13 years with a 25(OH)D levels of 20 ng/ml and above and diagnosed as normal who applied to the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics in December 2021 and January 2022 were included. A questionnaire in which sociodemographic characteristics were questioned was filled with parents of the children. Oral and dental examinations of the children were performed according to WHO criteria, and DMFT/dmft and mDDE indexes were recorded. Dental panoramic radiographs were taken from the children and dental age estimations were made according to the Willems and London Atlas methods. Fractal dimension analysis (FD) was performed on panoramic radiographs and mandibular cortical indices (MCI) were recorded. The obtained data were evaluated with the IBM SPSS V26 program, with p<0.05 as the significance level. Results: The decayed tooth score was higher in the study group than in the control group (p=0.026). No statistically significant difference was found in tooth extraction and filling scores (p=0.27, p=0.77). When the DMFT/dmft index values were examined, it was observed that the study group had higher scores than the control group (p=0.043). No statistically significant difference was found in the evaluation of children's mDDE index scores (p>0.05). No statistically significant difference was found between the ages of teeth obtained using the Willems and London Atlas methods (p>0.05). FD analysis values of the mandibular angulus and condyle regions of the children in the study group were found to be lower than those of the control group (p=0.00, p=0.037). ). No statistically significant difference was found between the groups in the FD analysis of the mandibular base cortical bone region (p=0.68). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups for MCI (p> 0.05). Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency can increase caries formation, affect jaw bone structure and slow down tooth development. Therefore, supplementation of vitamin D preparations for children with vitamin D deficiency may positively affect oral and dental health. Key words: Vitamin D, oral and dental health, dental development, fractal analysis