title: Oral and dental health in Huntington's disease - an observational study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Only a few case reports and case series dealing with oral and dental health care are available in literature until now. The aim of the present pilot study was to determine the status of dental health in comparison to matched controls and to heighten the neurologists' and dentists' awareness of the oral aspects of the disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  42 Huntington's disease (HD) participants were scored according to the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale. The dental status was assessed by using the well established score for decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) and the dental plaque score (Silness-Loe plaque index).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to controls HD participants showed significantly more decayed teeth and more plaques in both plaque indices. A higher motor impairment and a lower functional status of the patients lead to a worsening in dental status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Possible reasons for our findings are discussed. Apart from local oral complications general complications may also occur. Thus, as a consequence, we would encourage patients, caregivers, neurologists, and the dentists to ensure regular preventive dental examinations and dental treatments of individuals with Huntington's disease even in the premanifest stage of this disease.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saft
authors.forename: Jürgen E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Andrich
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jackowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009909:Oral Health; D010865:Pilot Projects