Oral and dental health status in patients with primary antibody deficiencies

Primary antibody deficiencies [PAD] are a group of immune system disorders, associated with decreased levels of secretory and protective immunoglobulins. Because of the important role of immunoglobulins in the protection of oral cavity, patients with PADs are more susceptible to dental caries or oral manifestations. This study was performed to investigate the oral and dental manifestations of PADs patients. In this study, 33 patients with PADs [21 common variable immunodeficiency, 8 X-linked agammaglobulinemia and 4 hyper IgM syndrome] and 66 controls were examined; the number of decayed, missed and filled teeth [DMFT] were investigated. Aphthous was the most frequent manifestation in PADs patients [38.7%], which was significantly 16.7% higher than the controls [p=0.03]. The patients with PADs showed significantly higher presentation of other oral and dental manifestations, including herpes sores, candidiasis tonsillitis, gingivitis, calculus, enamel hypoplasia and other ulcerations. The mean DMFT scores were 6.15 +/- 3.6 and 1.93 +/- 0.4 in PADs patients and controls, respectively [p<0.001]. Although the patients with common variable immunodeficiency had higher means of DMFT in comparison with other groups of PADs, this difference was not statistically significant. This study showed significantly higher frequency of oral and dental manifestations in the patients with PADs compared to controls. Therefore, regular examination of oral cavity could be suggested in this group of immunodeficient patients

[Effects of adjacent teeth on caries status of a deciduous tooth in 3-5 years-old children]

Based on the carried out studies, the prevalence of dental caries in preschool children is high and ranges from 31.64 to 83.7 percents in Iran. The dmft criterion is not able to compute the impact of neighboring teeth on caries status of a tooth in deciduous teeth. The purpose of this study was to investigate the above issue in a sample of 3-5 years old children in Tehran during 2008-2009. In this cross-sectional study, a group of 400, 3-5 years old children who lived in Tehran and referred to Pediatric Dentistry Department of the Dentistry Faculty of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, for treatment of their deciduous teeth were investigated The demographic variables and mouth health cares data were collected by a questionnaire and the caries status of deciduous teeth were diagnosed by standard methods. The caries statuses were considered as spatially correlated binary data. The auto logistic regression model was implemented for inspecting the association of a tooth and its neighboring teeth which consists of two adjacent teeth and the opponent tooth. The effects of factors were tested using z-score. The fitted model and the computed criteria showed that there was a strong dependency between caries statuses of a tooth and its three neighbors [including the two adjacent and the vertically opponent teeth] [p=0.0001]. Also the effect of spatial auto covariate which is equivalent to the sum of statuses of nearest neighbors of a tooth is highly significant. Furthermore, the effects of local variables such as jaw and posterior-anterior positions were also highly significant [p=0.0001]. In deciduous teeth, the three nearest neighbors have a high effect on a tooth. As a result, the teeth in maxilla and posterior locations are decayed sooner than the other ones. These findings may be considered in preventive programs of health of mouth and tooth in children

No evidence for association between Amelogenesis imperefecta and candidate genes

Amelogenesis imperfecta [AI] is an inherited tooth disorder. Despite the fact that up to now, several gene mutations in MMP20, ENAM, AMELX and KLK4 genes have been reported to be associated with AI, many other genes suggested to be involved. The main objective of this study was to find the mutations in three major candidate genes including MMP20, ENAM and KLK4 responsible for AI from three Iranian families with generalized hypoplastic phenotype in all teeth. All exon/intron boundaries of subjected genes were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and subjected to direct sequencing. One polymorphisms was identified in KLK4 exon 2, in one family a homozygous mutation was found in the third base of codon 22 for serine [TCG>TCT], but not in other families. Although these base substitutions have been occurred in the signaling domain, they do not seem to influence the activity of KLK4 protein. Our results might support the further evidence for genetic heterogeneity; at least, in some AI cases are not caused by a gene in these reported candidate genes