Anjugam Palanichamy, Mahesh Mathian Veerabadhran, Gawthaman Murugesan, Vinod Selvaraj, Yamuna Devi Easwaramurthy
Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Vivekanada Dental College for Women, Elayampalayam, Tiruchengode-TK Namakkal District, Tamil Nadu, India.
Rambam Maimonides Med J. 2021 Apr 29;12(2):e0015. doi: 10.5041/RMMJ.10437.
The dental needs of cerebral palsy children are an area of study much in need of attention. The neglect of this aspect should be rectified, and simpler diagnostic methodologies should be established and used to serve this purpose.
This study aimed to determine oral health status and salivary biomarkers (salivary flow rate, pH, buffering capacity) among children with cerebral palsy (CP), to compare their data with that of their healthy siblings, and to evaluate the relationship between salivary biomarkers and dental caries.
A total of 30 CP children (study group) and 30 normal healthy siblings (controls) were selected between the ages of 5 and 12 years. Salivary biomarkers were assessed, and oral health status was examined.
Chi-square test was used for comparison of oral health status. Unpaired t test was used to compare caries indexes (decay/filled teeth-primary dentition [dft] and decay/missing/filled teeth-permanent dentition [DMFT]) and salivary biomarkers between the groups. Pearson correlation was used to find the correlation between salivary biomarkers and caries.
The dft scores were significantly higher in the study group (P<0.05). The pH values and salivary flow rates were significantly lower in the study group (P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively). There was a significant correlation between DMFT scores and salivary flow rate in the study group (P<0.05).
Low pH and low salivary flow rate might be risk factors for dental caries in CP populations; moreover, the significant correlation between DMFT score and salivary flow rate suggests that salivary flow rate could be used as a screening tool for assessing at-risk subjects in such populations.
脑瘫儿童的口腔需求是一个急需关注的研究领域。应纠正对这方面的忽视，并建立更简单的诊断方法用于此目的。
本研究旨在确定脑瘫（CP）儿童的口腔健康状况和唾液生物标志物（唾液流速、pH值、缓冲能力），将他们的数据与其健康兄弟姐妹的数据进行比较，并评估唾液生物标志物与龋齿之间的关系。
选取30名年龄在5至12岁之间的CP儿童（研究组）和30名正常健康的兄弟姐妹（对照组）。评估唾液生物标志物，并检查口腔健康状况。
采用卡方检验比较口腔健康状况。采用非配对t检验比较两组之间的龋齿指数（乳牙龋失补牙数[dft]和恒牙龋失补牙数[DMFT]）和唾液生物标志物。采用Pearson相关性分析来发现唾液生物标志物与龋齿之间的相关性。
研究组的dft评分显著更高（P<0.05）。研究组的pH值和唾液流速显著更低（分别为P<0.05和P<0.001）。研究组中DMFT评分与唾液流速之间存在显著相关性（P<0.05）。
低pH值和低唾液流速可能是CP人群患龋齿的危险因素；此外，DMFT评分与唾液流速之间的显著相关性表明，唾液流速可作为评估此类人群中高危受试者的筛查工具。
