Serum zinc as a risk indicator for oral health status among secondary school students in Duhok Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Abstract EN

-Background and Objective: In recent years there has been growing interest in understanding the exact role played by trace elements in several diseases.

Particular attention has been paid to elements with possible influence on oral health status like zinc.

The wide inconsistencies about the subject and the paucity of local studies in this context mandated the conduct of this study.

The objective was to investigate the relationship of serum zinc with oral health status.

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional design enrolling eight secondary schools in Duhok city has been adopted from 15th April to 15th June 2013.

The sample comprised 280 (188 males and 92 females) apparently healthy students aged 18-23yrs.

The study made use of blood samples collected in a previous study of Dr.

Ali Hussein Ahmad.

The same samples were used to determine the level of serum zinc.

A questionnaire was used to obtain information on age, gender, medical diseases and drug history.

This was followed by clinical dental examination to assess two standard oral health indices, namely, Decayed, Missing, Filled Surfaces (DMFS) and gingival index (GI) for each student.

Results: The mean serum zinc was (78.72 ± 13.54 μg/dl) the value was higher in males and the differences were statistically significant ( p < 0.001).The mean DMFS was higher in females than in males (12.08 ± 5.52 vs.

10.37 ± 5.84 respectively.

P 0.02), while the mean GI was higher in males than in females (0.94 ± 0.77 vs.

0.49 ± 0.58 respectively.

p < 0.001).

Serum zinc was negatively correlated with both DMFS and GI, the correlation was stronger with DMFS scores (r = - 0.9) than with GI scores (r = - 0.6).

Conclusions: Different levels of serum zinc relate variably to oral health status.

Serum zinc relates mainly to DMFS scores through a negative correlation