Assessment Of Oral Health Status Of Children With Epilepsy: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background Epileptic children are liable to experience oral health problems either due to the disease itself or medications administered to control the condition. Aim We aimed to investigate caries experience, gingival health and oro-facial traumatic injuries in a sample of epileptic Egyptian children. Design A retrospective cohort study was conducted from September 2016 to April 2017 using data from medical records in Children Hospital at Ain Shams University. Dental examination was performed for 100 epileptic children and 80 healthy subjects who matched in age, gender, and socio-economic status. Caries experience was measured using the decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT or dmft) index and gingival index (GI) of Loe and Sillness was used to determine gingival health status. Oro-facial injuries were assessed using the WHO classification of trauma. Quantitative data were presented as mean, SD, and 95% CI values. Qualitative data were presented as frequencies and percentages and the significance level was set at P <= 0.05. Results The mean +/- SD GI for epileptic children was significantly higher (1.16 +/- 0.42) than that of healthy children. (1.01 +/- 0.11) Healthy subjects had significantly lower mean dmf index scores 2.2 +/- 2.6 compared to epileptic subjects where mean dmf scores were 4.1 +/- 2.1. No significant difference, however, was detected between the two groups regarding caries experience in permanent dentition or incidence of oro-facial injuries. Conclusions Epileptic children are highly burdened with gingival problems and liable to develop dental caries especially in primary dentition. Oral traumatic injuries, however, are not common complications if seizure attacks are well controlled.