Dental approaches in children with congenital heart disease treated under general anesthesia for oral rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND: Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at high risk of contracting oral diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate dental procedures to prevent the risk of infective endocarditis in children with CHD.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: 146 patients aged 2-14 years, in need of prophylaxis before cardiovascular surgery and who had filled out anamnesis records, were considered. Dental caries in all the children with CHD was reported as the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT).

RESULTS: There was a significant strong positive relationship between the pre-oral rehabilitation DMF-T/dmf-t scores and the number of caries patients (r=0.95, p=0.01). There was no significant correlation between the pre-oral rehabilitation DMF-T/dmf-t scores and both tooth loss (r=0.14, p=0.09) and the number of restorations (r=0.11, p=0.17). In addition, there was no significant correlation between the post-oral rehabilitation DMF-T/dmf-t scores and the prevalence of dental caries. A positive and moderately strong correlation was found between the post-oral rehabilitation DMF-T/dmf-t scores and the number of missing teeth (r=0.56, p=0.01), while there was a positive and strong relationship between the post-treatment DMF-T/dmf-t scores and the number of fillings (r=0.62, p=0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: Extraction should be considered when providing oral rehabilitation, rather than endodontic and deep restorative treatments.