Abstract
Due to improved medical care, children with congenital heart diseases (CHD)do not infrequently visit the dental clinics. However the oral health of children with CHD has not been improved because of several reasons. Therefore, it is important to recognize the actual condition of children with CHD. This report is the investigation into the dental situation of 220 children with CHD who had visited the Pedodontic Clinic of Niigata University Dental Hospital from September 1979to December 1993.
The results were as follows:
1. The ratio of patients with CHD in our clinic was 1.7%.
2. The age of patients ranged from 0 to 16 years old. Most of them were 3 or 4-year-old children and the average age was 5 years 7 months.
3.66.8% of patients were referred from medical hospitals or other dental clinics. The majority of these patients asked for caries treatment before receiving heart surgery.
4. The diagnoses of CHD included ventricular septal defects (92 cases), tetralogy of the Fallot (43 cases) and so on.31.4% of the patients had complications which included the Down Syndrome, mental retardation and so on.
5.46.2% of the CHD patients who were going to receive heart surgery visited our clinic less than 2 weeks before the operation.
6. The prevalence of dental caries in CHD patients was higher than those of healthy children.
7. Most of the dental treatments involved restorations. However the ratio of extractions and endodontic treatments was higher than those of healthy children.73.2% of the CHD patients received treatment for all decayed teeth. The average number of treated teeth was 7.3 and the average number of times of treatment was 4.3.
8.55.0% of the CHD patients visited our clinic for recalls. The results suggest that early oral health management and its maintenance in cooperation with medical department are necessary.
