Dental college research featured at national meetingWhen the American Association of Dental Research wanted to announce its upcoming 30th annual meeting and exhibition, March 7-10, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago, they began with “Did you know that children with asthma have higher rates of tooth decay?”The reference is to a research project from the MUSC College of Dental Medicine: “Caries Experience in Children with Asthma,” Carlos F. Salinas, Valerie L. Opala, and Cynthia L. Hardin. The research, which Carlos Salinas, DDS, said is a spin-off of the Healthy South Carolina Initiative: “Dental Program for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Special Patients,” was among more than 1,900 scientific presentations. They represented the latest thinking in dental research and were available to about 3,000 dental scientists, educators, students and practicing dentists attending the meeting. Asthma and Caries (tooth decay) are the two major causes of school absenteeism in the United States. Salinas, Opala and Hardin decided to examine the correlation between tooth decay in children with asthma and environmental factors, such as medication. In 655 patients between the ages of 1 and 15, 125 of whom had been diagnosed with asthma, the researchers found that the numbers of decayed, missing and filled teeth (in the primary dentition) were significantly higher in the asthmatic children. The numbers were higher in the permanent teeth as well. The investigators found that the drug albuterol, which depletes saliva, was used most often to treat the children’s asthma. They concluded that the children with asthma may need a more aggressive dental caries prevention protocol and a better dental referral system once an asthma diagnosis is made. Further, alternatives to saliva-depleting drugs should be investigated for treating these children so that their asthma can be controlled without damaging their oral health.
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