Urinary catecholamine levels in children with and without dental caries

Urinary catecholamines have been used to measure emotionally stressful states which may affect the development of dental caries. This study investigates the hypothesis that children with and without dental caries do not differ significantly in the mean values of urinary catecholamines such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. As a test of this hypothesis, 314 children, males and females, aged from 6 to 8 years, were included in the study. Dental caries were recorded clinically and radiographically, and oral hygiene was evaluated by the recording of dental plaque. A 24-hour urine sample was collected for each subject, and a representative sample (25 mL) was analyzed by the HPLC technique to assay the catecholamine content. Socioeconomic factors such as parental age, education, and profession were recorded by a questionnaire distributed to the parents. Of the examined children, 38 (14 males and 24 females) were free of dental caries and constituted the case group. Two control groups, A and B, of 38 children each (14 males and 24 females) with dental caries were matched by age and gender. Differences in the quantitative and qualitative data were tested by the paired t test and the X2-test, respectively, while a regression analysis was applied to measure the effects of norepinephrine and dopamine on epinephrine. The logistic multiple-regression analysis was used to test, in the entire population, the impact of catecholamines and other related factors on the probability of subjects' developing dental caries. The 95% probability was used. The results showed statistically significant differences in epinephrine values between the case group and control groups A and B. The data suggest, therefore, that children with emotionally stressful states have higher probability of developing dental caries.