Comparing tooth enamel disturbances in a pediatric population that had received prior chemotherapy treatment to age-matched controls from the Virginia Commonwealth University Pediatric Dentistry Clinic.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test whether children who have undergone cancer chemotherapy have a higher prevalence of enamel abnormalities of the second mandibular premolars than age matched controls. Methods: This study was a case-control design where the case group involved 26 subjects that had received chemotherapy treatment between the ages of 2 to 6 and at the time of the study were between the ages of 9 to 18. The control group consisted of 26 subjects matched for age and sex to the case group that had not received chemotherapy. The second mandibular premolars were assessed based on the types of defects, their number and location according to a modified DDE index. A secondary examiner, blinded to the results of the primary, analyzed photographs taken at examination and provided their own assessment in order to calibrate results. Result: Nominally there were more normal surfaces in the case group than in the control group (81% vs 70%) and fewer hypoplasias in the case group (5% vs 13%). There was no statistical difference between the buccal and occlusal surfaces. For the buccal surfaces, the cases were nominally lower but not statistically significant (P=0.0680) and there is no evidence for a case-control difference on the lingual surfaces (P\u3e0.9). Conclusions: In this study developmental defects of the enamel organ were not observed to be statistically different between the case and control groups, although previous studies have shown otherwise