Enamel defects in relation to nutritional status among a group of children with congenital heart disease : ventricular septal defect

Abstract EN

Background : Congenital heart disease is a structural anomaly of the heart or great vessels, that is or could be of functional significance.

Children with congenital heart disease are at a high risk to develop oral diseases.

The aim of this study was to investigate the percentage of occurrence and severity of the enamel defects in relation to the nutritional status among a group of children with ventricular septal defect compared to control group matching with age and gender.

Materials and methods : A sample of 60 pediatric patients with ventricular septal defect (study group) and 30 normal healthy children (control group), their ages range between (5-8) years old were examined.

The study group was divided into two subgroups according to the medication (with medication ventricular septal defect and without medication ventricular septal defect groups).

Clinical examinations were conducted under standardized conditions.

Enamel defects were diagnosed and recorded following the criteria of World Health Organization (1).

The assessment of nutritional status was performed by using anthropometric measurement (body mass index) following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth chart (2).

Results : Results revealed that a higher percentage of children with enamel defects were recorded among with medication ventricular septal defect group 80%, without medication ventricular septal defect group 63.3% compared to 13.3% in the control group.

For the primary teeth, hypoplasia was the most distributed type of enamel defects among ventricular septal defect groups.

While among the control group, demarcated opacities were the most prevalent type for both dentition.

The enamel hypoplasia for primary and permanent teeth showed higher mean value among malnourished children compared to well nourished among both ventricular septal defect groups with statistically no significant difference.

Conclusions : Children with ventricular septal defect had a high enamel defects compared to the control children.