Caries prevalence and associations with medications and medical comorbidities

To use extensive electronic dental, medical, and pharmacy databases to estimate the prevalence of dental caries in a cohort of new patients during a 5-year period (FY2010-FY2015) and determine whether medication use and medical comorbidities are associated with caries prevalence.

This was a retrospective analysis of existing data from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The number of teeth treated due to a caries-related diagnosis was determined and outcomes were presented as number of teeth/person and proportion of patients receiving caries-related treatment. Logistic and negative binomial regression modeled teeth/person with caries-related treatment; covariates included age, gender, race, ethnicity, physical and mental comorbidities, and use of prescription medications and prescription drugs with strong anticholinergic properties.

The study population included 95,850 dentate dental patients: 92.1 percent were male, mean age of 58.7 ± 12.6 years, 73.2 percent were White/Caucasian, and 21.3 percent were Black/African American. They were taking a mean of 10.6 ± 5.9 VA prescription drug classes, 0.6 ± 0.4 drugs with strong anticholinergic properties, and had 3.6 ± 2.2 physical and 1.4 ± 1.2 mental comorbidities. On average, 2.2 teeth/person received caries-related treatment and 58 percent of the study population received any caries-related treatment. An increase in the rate of caries-related treatment in Veterans was statistically significantly associated with increased prescription medication use; one or more drugs with strong anticholinergic properties and with 1+ mental comorbidities. Increased physical comorbidity was not statistically significantly associated with caries-related treatment.

This study demonstrates a high prevalence of caries among Veteran dental patients, with an increased prevalence in those taking higher numbers of prescription medications.