The oral health of children considered very high risk for infective endocarditis

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Published on: December 31, 2017

Richard Balmer1, Georgia Booras, Jonathan Parsons

  • 1Division of Child Dental Health, Leeds Dental Institute, Leeds, UK. r.c.balmer@leeds.ac.uk

International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry
|April 23, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Children at high risk for infective endocarditis (IE) showed similar dental health to healthy peers, despite high caries rates. Parental awareness of oral health

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Cardiology
  • Oral Health
  • Infective Endocarditis

Background:

  • Children with prior infective endocarditis (IE) or prosthetic heart valves face very high IE risk.
  • Oral health is a critical factor in managing IE risk in high-risk pediatric populations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare dental health between high-risk children and healthy controls.
  • To assess parental awareness of oral health's importance in preventing IE.

Main Methods:

  • Dental examinations were conducted on 28 high-risk children and 28 healthy controls.
  • Parental awareness of oral health was evaluated using questionnaires.

Main Results:

  • No significant differences in DMFT scores were found between the high-risk and control groups.
  • 36% of the high-risk group had untreated caries, despite excellent parental knowledge.
  • Parental awareness regarding the link between oral health and IE was notably high.

Conclusions:

  • Oral health status did not significantly differ between high-risk cardiac children and healthy controls.
  • High rates of untreated caries in the study group are concerning, even with good dental awareness and attendance.
  • Further investigation into maintaining oral hygiene in high-risk pediatric populations is warranted.
Abstract

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