الفهرس Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 99 |  |  |
| | | from | 99 | | |
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the oral health status of children with congenital heart disease scheduled for surgery, to measure the level of Streptococcus mutans in the saliva of those children and to assess the parental knowledge and current oral health procedures by those children.
During their first years of life, children with congenital heart disease often receive extensive medical and surgical treatment and have shorter or longer stays in hospitals. Early dental health problems are common in children with severe congenital heart disease
The sample of the present study consisted of 40 Children with congenital heart disease aged 6-10 years old selected from the Cardiology Unit, Specialized Pediatrics Hospital, Faculty of Medicine Cairo University, scheduled for surgery. They were divided into 2 groups, the first group (group I) with mean age 7.6 years who were not receiving antibiotic therapy. The second group (group II) with mean age 7.2 years who were receiving antibiotics.
The control group consisted of 20 Healthy children with mean age 7.5 years selected from the Department of Pediatrics dentistry, Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine, Cairo University.
All the children were examined clinically for dental caries sitting on a dental chair using sterile diagnostic instruments, using the methods described for basic Oral Health Surveys by the World Health Organization ”W.H.O. recommendations 1987” to calculate dental caries index DMF/def. The Oral health status was evaluated using the oral hygiene index simplified (OHI-S).
Stimulated whole saliva samples were collected from each child, and cultured on Mitis-Salivarius-Bacitracin agar media, and incubated for 48 hours. Salivary Streptococcus mutans were identified by their characteristic colony morphology on the selective media.
Parental knowledge and current practice of dental health procedure was assessed by a questionnaire at the same visit
The results revealed that:
1- There was statistically significant difference between the mean def of the three groups, where cardiac group I showed the highest mean def index, while the control group showed the lowest mean def index. As regard mean DMF it was noticed that the CHD group has the highest mean but with no statistically significant difference.
2- The cardiac group I has the highest mean OHI-S but with no statistically significant difference between the three studied groups.
3- The Salivary Streptococcus Mutans count in the control and the cardiac group I differed significantly than the cardiac group II.
4- The present study also showed poor parental knowledge and poor oral health behavior of the cardiac children.