title: An association of premature loss of primary maxillary incisors with speech production of bilingual children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early childhood caries is prevalent in the United States, especially among Hispanic children. One consequence may be premature loss of primary teeth, raising concern about developmental challenges. This study examined speech sound articulation errors association with  premature loss of the primary maxillary incisors of bilingual children (Spanish/English).
  
  
  METHODS
  Hispanic children were assessed with a speech sound articulation test at 7 to 10 years of age against their history of primary maxillary anterior incisor loss. The exposed group (N =25)  experienced premature extraction of these incisors, and the unexposed group (N =8) had normal dental exfoliation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The groups were similar regarding: age at speech assessment; gender; language spoken at home; socioeconomic status; caries prevalence; mean number of decayed, missing,  filled and sealed teeth. Higher values for the dental articulation errors (P=.04) were revealed among exposed vs unexposed. Exposed boys had more total speech articulation errors (P=.03), dental-related errors (P=.048), and other errors (P=.04) than the unexposed boys, although of small sample  size.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bilingual children who experienced early primary tooth loss exhibited differences in speech sound production vs those who did not. Further research is warranted to determine the extent early tooth loss in bilingual children predicts speech problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Ill, USA.
authors.forename: Flavia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lamberghini
authors.forename: Linda M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Kaste
authors.forename: Shahrbanoo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fadavi
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koerber
authors.forename: Indru C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Punwani
authors.forename: E Bonnie
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013060:Speech