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The association between sickle cell disease and dental caries in African Americans
Author(s) -
Laurence Brian,
George David,
Woods Dexter,
Shosanya Adeyemisi,
Katz Ralph V.,
Lanzkron Sophie,
DienerWest Marie,
Powe Neil
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
special care in dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.328
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1754-4505
pISSN - 0275-1879
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-4505.2006.tb01430.x
Subject(s) - medicine , african american , disease , oral examination , oral health , sickle cell anemia , dentistry , demography , gerontology , ethnology , sociology , history
This study sought to determine whether there was an association between sickle cell disease (SCD) and dental caries in African‐American adults. A sample of 102 African‐American adult patients with SCD from Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, were matched to 103 African‐American adult subjects, who did not have SCD. The match was by age, gender and recruitment location. Each subject underwent a standardized oral examination as well as an interview to ascertain risk factors for dental caries. For individuals with incomes of less than $15,000, subjects with SCD had more decayed (10.36 versus 1.58) and fewer filled (2.86 versus 8.45) surfaces compared to subjects without SCD with both differences being statistically significant ( p <0.05) after adjusting for age and gender. The results suggest that low‐income African Americans with SCD may be at increased risk for dental caries and are less likely to receive treatment with a restoration.