Dental caries among a group of boys with β-thalassemia major (10-12 years old) in relation to salivary Mutans streptococci

Abstract

Background: Beta thalassemia major is an inherited disorder that may affect general and oral health.The purpose ofthis study was toassess the severity of dental caries in relation to oral cleanliness, mutans streptococciamong a groupof boys with beta thalassemia majorin comparison with a control group.Materials and Methods: The study involved 30 boys with BTM aged 10-12 years compared to 30 healthy boys with thesame age group. d1-4mfs and D1-4 MFS indices were applied (Muhlemann, 1976), the viable counts of mutansstreptococci in stimulated saliva were also determined.Results: The entire thalassemic group was caries-active. For both dentitions, a higher dmfs/DMFS values wererecorded for study compared to control group, difference was statistically not significantconcerning dmfs, while itwas statistically significant concerning DMFS (P<0.05). Salivary bacterial counts of mutans streptococci were found tobe higher in the study compared to control group and the difference was statistically highly significant (P<0.01).Allcorrelations between bacterial counts and dmfs/DMFS indices in study group were statistically not significant.Conclusion: Patients with Beta thalasemic major had more caries severity compared to normal subjects