Comparison of oral and dental health between children on therapy for asthma and allergic rhinitis and their healthy peers

Introduction:
The prevalence of allergic rhinitis in Türkiye has been reported as 11.8–36.4%, and asthma prevalence is around 2–16%. Although the mortality rate associated with dental diseases is low, dental diseases indicate deterioration in nutritional adequacy and self-care. The use of drugs in the treatment of asthma and allergic rhinitis is one of the major risk factors in the formation of dental caries. Asthma, allergic rhinitis and dental caries are multifactorial diseases.

Aim:
To investigate whether there is a difference between the groups by evaluating the oral and dental health of children with a diagnosis of allergic rhinitis or asthma and healthy children from the ages of 6 to 12 in Sakarya province of Türkiye.

Material and methods:
The study included 125 participants in 3 groups, 62 healthy, 30 with asthma and 33 with allergic rhinitis. Socio-economic conditions, duration of drug use, nutrition and tooth brushing routine as well as dmft/DMFT, which shows the number of caries, missing and filled teeth in primary and permanent teeth, plaque index (PI) and gingival index (GI) parameters were compared between groups.

Results:
There was a significant difference between the DMFT measurements of the patient and the healthy group. DMFT measurements were found to be low in the patient group. In the rhinitis group, a weak positive correlation was found between DMFT and PI as well as GI. In the asthma group, a significant relationship was found between DMFT and PI. The significant decrease in the DMFT index in rhinitis patients with increasing duration of drug use may be explained by the fact that tooth development was multifactorial.

Conclusions:
The low DMFT index in the patient group supports the hygiene hypothesis, and when the nutritional habits of the patients are examined, it can be attributed to the low cariogenic nutrition of this group. Consequently, more extensive research should be performed to investigate the impact of allergic rhinitis and asthma, as well as the pharmacological treatments for these conditions, on oral and dental health.