title: Caries incidence in children with acyanotic congenital heart diseases before and after the heart operation.
abstract: An acyanotic cardiac disease (ASD) was diagnosed in a 9-year-old girl with a very high caries incidence and premature tooth eruption. After the heart operation her caries incidence declined considerably. An epidemiological survey was then conducted to find out if these observations could be generalized. dmf-t, dmfs, DMF-T and DMFS values for each year were counted retrospectively for a group of acyanotic heart diseased children operated on at the age of 5-7 years (mean 6) and another group operated on at the age of 10-13 years (mean 12), from the documents relating to annual examinations conducted by the public health dental services. The results were compared to those of healthy children matched for age and sex living in the same area. Heart disease resulted in DMF-T values above the control level in the group operated on at age 6 years, whereas the values were lower than the controls in the group operated on at age 12 years, the difference being significant after the operation in the latter case. It is concluded that acyanotic congenital heart disease may lead to a higher caries prevalence and sometimes rampant caries. When the caries prevalence of the population is high, however, (DMF-T higher than 4.5 at 12 years), the effect of heart disease remains hidden.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Backman
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Larmas
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Kaar
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Paavilainen
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006344:Heart Septal Defects, Atrial / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies