Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Dental Clinic, Justus Liebig University, Schlangenzahl 14, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
Centre for Heart Surgery, Medical Centre of Pediatrics, Justus Liebig University, Feulgenstrasse 12, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Sep 27;17(19):7057. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17197057.
Parents of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) seem to underestimate the importance of optimized oral health. The low priority for a good oral hygiene and a healthy diet can be a risk factor for odontogenic bacteremia and infective endocarditis. The aim of this study was the evaluation of the disease awareness and dental knowledge of the parents using a questionnaire. Therefore, parents from 107 children with CHD and a healthy control group (HCG) consisting of 101 children both aged 2 to 6 years were asked to complete a questionnaire containing items about the general health, oral hygiene behavior, preventive measures, dental visits and intake of potential drinks and cariogenic nutrition of their child. The results of the present study show that the CHD group had a poorer oral health behavior than the HCG. Healthy children brushed their teeth significantly more often (65.4%) than the CHD children (45.1%). Only 75% of CHD children used fluorides in their daily life in comparison to 86.6% of the healthy children, 8.7% of their parents neglected completely fluoride supplementation. Of all CHD children 23.1% in comparison to 8.1% of the controls had never visited a dentist before. Furthermore, the daily consumption of cariogenic food and drinks was generally higher in the CHD group. These findings demonstrate a need for improvement in parental knowledge of the efficiency of different measures to improve dental health. This important oral health for CHD children from the early stage of life is obvious, especially regarding their risk for odontogenic bacteria and infective endocarditis.
先心病（CHD）患儿的父母似乎低估了优化口腔健康的重要性。口腔卫生和健康饮食的优先级较低可能成为导致牙源性菌血症和感染性心内膜炎的风险因素。本研究旨在通过问卷调查评估患儿父母的疾病认知和口腔知识水平。因此，我们对 107 名 CHD 患儿的家长和由 101 名年龄在 2 至 6 岁之间的健康儿童组成的对照组（HCG）的家长进行了问卷调查，问卷内容包括孩子的一般健康状况、口腔卫生行为、预防措施、看牙频率以及潜在饮料和致龋营养的摄入情况。本研究结果表明，CHD 组的口腔健康行为比 HCG 组差。健康儿童刷牙的频率（65.4%）显著高于 CHD 儿童（45.1%）。仅有 75%的 CHD 儿童在日常生活中使用氟化物，而健康儿童的这一比例为 86.6%，8.7%的患儿家长完全忽略了氟化物的补充。所有 CHD 儿童中，有 23.1%的儿童从未看过牙医，而对照组中这一比例为 8.1%。此外，CHD 组儿童每日摄入致龋食物和饮料的频率普遍较高。这些发现表明，需要提高患儿家长对改善口腔健康的不同措施的认知水平。从生命早期开始，为 CHD 儿童提供良好的口腔健康非常重要，尤其是考虑到他们面临牙源性细菌和感染性心内膜炎的风险。
