Oral manifestations of coeliac disease.: A clinical-statistic study

AIM.: The aim of the clinical-statistic study was to evaluate the prevalence of the different oral manifestations in a sample of coeliac patients, in comparison with a control group of healthy subjects. Moreover, a second objective was to determine if the clinical oral examination is useful as a diagnostic tool of screening for atypical forms of coeliac disease (CD). METHODS.: The enrolment of 300 coeliac patients, aged between 4 and 13 years (mean age 8.16), was carried out at the Pediatric Dentistry Unit in patients sent from the Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit of the PTV Hospital, University of Rome Tor Vergata. The control group was composed of 300 healthy subjects, age-matched (mean age 8.29), enrolled from the Pediatric Dentistry Unit. The patients were examined for hard tissues (enamel hypoplasia, dental caries), soft tissues (recurrent aphthous stomatitis RAS, atrophic glossitis, geographic tongue) and delay dental eruption. Enamel defects were classified according to Aine's criteria, while dental caries was recorded as dmft/DMFT indices. Statistical analysis was carried out by using SPSS/PC+ Software. Differences between case and control groups were tested using Paired samples T-test, and Chi-Square Test, depending on the variable considered. The minimal level of significance of the differences was fixed at p≤0.05 for all the procedures. RESULTS.: Statistical differences between groups were observed for the prevalence of enamel defects (p=0.0001), RAS (p=0.005), delay in dental eruption (p=0.0001), but not for the prevalence of atrophic glossitis (p=0.664). Differences in symmetrical distribution and a chronologic coherence of enamel defects were statistically significant between CD and control groups (p=0.0001). Regarding dental caries, the coeliac patients had higher indexes of caries than healthy subjects, both in deciduous teeth (dmft 2.31±1.84 vs 1.42±1.13; p= 0.021) and permanent teeth (DMFT 2.97±1.74 vs 1.74±1.64; p=0.0001). CONCLUSIONS.: The clinical oral examination should be considered a diagnostic tool for the characterization of subjects affected by silent-atypical forms of CD.