IADR Abstract Archives
Frequent Relapsing Symptoms In Atopic Dermatitis And Dental Caries Susceptibility
Objectives: A novel link has recently been reported between atopic dermatitis (AD) and tooth decay (early childhood caries, ECC) in preschool children. This study was aimed to determine whether frequent relapsing symptoms in children with AD is associated with increased ECC susceptibility.
Methods: Data, including demographics and disease diagnosis, was collected from National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), consisting of health care data from >99% of Taiwanese population. The diagnostic codes used were based on the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). AD cohort included children who fulfilled these criteria: a) aged less than 6 years; b) diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (ICD-9-CM code 691.8) by dermatologists between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2008; c) no history of caries before AD diagnosis; d) no congenital anomaly. The age-, sex-, and enrollment time-matched (1:4) control cohort was randomly identified after excluding subjects with AD at any time, congenital anomalies, or previous caries before enrolment in the study. ECC group included children aged less than 6 years and diagnosed with caries (ICD-9-CM code 521.0) by board-certified dentists. The frequency of clinic visits for AD (times/year), was used as a proxy indicator for frequent relapsing of AD-related symptoms. The Cox regression model was used to assess ECC risk for subjects with AD, compared to those without AD.
Results: Out of 1297 children diagnosed with AD, 71.9% of them had ECC lesions, in comparison to 62.2% among the control group (p<0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders, presence of AD was shown to be at higher risk of ECC (p<0.001). Furthermore, an incremental increase in ECC risk was shown with increasing frequency of annual clinic visits for AD children.
Conclusions: This study confirms the novel AD-ECC association and highlights the dose-response relationship between frequency of relapsing symptoms and dental caries susceptibility.
Methods: Data, including demographics and disease diagnosis, was collected from National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), consisting of health care data from >99% of Taiwanese population. The diagnostic codes used were based on the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). AD cohort included children who fulfilled these criteria: a) aged less than 6 years; b) diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (ICD-9-CM code 691.8) by dermatologists between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2008; c) no history of caries before AD diagnosis; d) no congenital anomaly. The age-, sex-, and enrollment time-matched (1:4) control cohort was randomly identified after excluding subjects with AD at any time, congenital anomalies, or previous caries before enrolment in the study. ECC group included children aged less than 6 years and diagnosed with caries (ICD-9-CM code 521.0) by board-certified dentists. The frequency of clinic visits for AD (times/year), was used as a proxy indicator for frequent relapsing of AD-related symptoms. The Cox regression model was used to assess ECC risk for subjects with AD, compared to those without AD.
Results: Out of 1297 children diagnosed with AD, 71.9% of them had ECC lesions, in comparison to 62.2% among the control group (p<0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders, presence of AD was shown to be at higher risk of ECC (p<0.001). Furthermore, an incremental increase in ECC risk was shown with increasing frequency of annual clinic visits for AD children.
Conclusions: This study confirms the novel AD-ECC association and highlights the dose-response relationship between frequency of relapsing symptoms and dental caries susceptibility.