Objective The aim of this study was to examine the
association between early dental caries and iron-deficiency
anaemia in preschool children.
Patients and methods This case–control study included
100 children with early dental caries aged 2–6 years from
the outpatient dental clinic, Benha University hospitals, and
50 caries-free healthy age-matched and sex-matched
children as a control group. All children were subjected
to a full assessment of history, clinical examination, and
laboratory investigations in the form of complete blood
count, calculation of serum iron, total iron-binding capacity,
serum ferritin, and serum albumin.
Results Children with early dental caries had significantly
lower mean haemoglobin levels (10.01± 0.83 g/dl) than the
controls (11.80 ± 0.91 g/dl), lower mean corpuscular
volume (72.56± 4.96 fl) than the controls (80.30 ±6.35 fl),
lower mean serum iron (0.40± 0.10 lg/ml) than the
controls (0.73± 0.23 lg/ml) and lower mean serum ferritin
(31.86 ±18.2 ng/ml) than the controls (40.96± 21.1 ng/ml).
Clinical manifestations of vitamin A and B deficiency
were significantly increased in the patients than in the
controls. There were significant negative correlations
between haemoglobin, serum iron and serum ferritin
levels with the number of affected teeth.
Conclusion Early dental caries had an effect on the state
of iron in preschool children giving significantly greater
odds of iron-deficiency anaemia. Med Res J 13:108–114 c
2014 Medical Research Journal.
Medical Research Journal 2014, 13:108–114
Keywords: early caries, iron-deficiency anaemia, preschool children |
