Dental caries experience in children with congenital heart disease: a case-control study

Objectives. To compare the dental health of a group of children with complex congenital heart disease with that of age and gender matched healthy controls. Design. Case‐control study. Setting. Faculty of Medicine and Odontology/Pediatric cardiology and Pedodontics, Umeå University, Sweden. Sample and Methods. All the cases and their controls lived in the county of Västerbotten in northern Sweden. Each group comprised 41 children with a mean age of 6·5 years. Data were collected from medical and dental records while all bitewing radiographs were read separately by one of the authors. Results. Children with congenital heart disease had significantly more caries in their primary teeth than the control group. The mean dmfs‐value was 5·2 ± 7·0 in the cardiac group compared to 2·2 ± 3·5 in the control group (P 0·05). The children with congenital heart disease had received more caries prevention based on the use of fluorides than the control group. There was a significant correlation between the number of fluoride varnish treatments and the dmfs value of the child (r = 0·411, P