The prevalence of caries and tooth wear in cleft children aged between 6 months and 6 years in the West of Scotland.

Britton, Karen F.M. (2009) The prevalence of caries and tooth wear in cleft children aged between 6 months and 6 years in the West of Scotland. MSc(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Aim:
To compare the prevalence of caries and tooth wear in the primary teeth of children with clefts with comparable national data and to determine whether there is an association between the occurrence of a cleft and socioeconomic deprivation in the West of Scotland.
Method:
Ethical approval was granted from the West of Scotland Ethics Committee and the local Research and Development Office. Children attending the Oral Orthopaedic Prevention Clinic at Glasgow Dental Hospital and School were examined for caries according to British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD) criteria (Pitts et al., 1997) by two trained and calibrated examiners (KB and RW). A copy of the data collection criteria is appended (Appendix 1). Subjects were divided into five age groups: 0.5 – 1.49, 1.5 – 2.49, 2.5 – 3.49, 3.5 – 4.49 and 4.5 – 6.0 years. Mean dmft scores were compared to available national data (NDIP, 2008) for nursery and 5-year-old children in Scotland. Tooth wear scores for each age group were compared to available national data for the same age groups.
Results:
Two hundred and nine subjects were examined: 45.9% were female, 54.1% male. Twenty-one (10%) had a recognised syndrome and were reported separately, leaving 188 subjects in the main study. Cleft Palate (CP) was the most commonly occurring cleft in both syndromic and non-syndromic groups, followed in decreasing numbers by UCLP, BCLP, UCL and BCL.
The only age group of cleft children with a significantly higher level of caries than the general population was the 4.5 – 6.0 year-olds. Only 37.2% of the cleft subjects in this age group were caries free compared to the national figure of 57.7%. The mean dmft for the cleft group was 3.24 compared to 1.86 nationally. The other age groups had similar dmft and percentages of subjects caries free compared to the national data. The differences did not reach significance.
All the age groups in this study exhibited more tooth wear than their non-cleft peers. When looking specifically at wear extending into dentine, both the 1.5 – 2.49 and 3.5 – 4.49 age groups had significantly more wear when compared to the national data (p ≤ 0.05).
Conclusions:
By the age of 4.5 years, cleft children in the West of Scotland have significantly more caries than their non-cleft peers.
Children with a cleft aged 1.5 – 2.49 and 3.5 – 4.49 exhibit significantly more tooth wear into dentine on the upper primary incisors than their non-cleft peers.

• Item Type: Thesis (MSc(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: Caries, cleft, children, dental
• Subjects: R Medicine > RK Dentistry
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing > Dental School
• Supervisor's Name: Welbury, Prof. Robert R.
• Date of Award: 2009
• Depositing User: Mrs Karen Britton
• Unique ID: glathesis:2009-1752
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 29 Apr 2010
• Last Modified: 10 Dec 2012 13:46
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/1752