Prevalence of Medically Compromised Children Among Dental Patients: A 10-Year Retrospective Study

INTRODUCTION: Medical conditions can affect oral health status as well as directly affect dental treatment planning and patient management. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the various medical condition prevalence of the children in a community-based dental hospital.
METHODS: In this study, the anamnesis forms of 30,161 children aged 0-15 who referred to a university dental hospital, from a defined geographical area in southeastern Turkey between 2010 and 2020 were evaluated. Patients who had a medical risk and chronic/systemic/genetic diseases were included in the study. Medical records saved for acute conditions, cooperation problems and isolated tooth anomalies not associated with any syndrome or genetic disease were excluded from the study.
RESULTS: 1619 (5.36%) of the patients included in the study had at least one systemic disease. According to medical conditions which were examined and categorized, the most common disease group was neurological disorders (17.1%) and the most common disease was epilepsy (11.7%). It’s followed by Congenital/Chromosomal malformations (14.8%), while autism was the most common in this group with a rate of 36.7%.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Obtaining a detailed medical history from every patient who referred to the dental clinic is very significant in terms of treatment planning, non-routine required protocols and complications. Dentists and pediatricians should evaluate more frequently and rigidly with a multidisciplinary approach in children with systemic diseases whose oral and dental health becomes very fragile as a result of their medical condition.