Dental Caries Rates in Children with Down Syndrome

The purpose of this study is to investigate dental caries rates for Down Syndrome (DS) children compared to healthy children (age 2-12 years) matched for age and gender. It is hypothesized that in a clinical sample conducted at University of Illinois at Chicago Postgraduate Pediatric Department, the caries rates for children with Down syndrome will be the same as the caries rates for non-Down Syndrome children matched for age and gender. This is a retrospective, cross sectional, matched study that utilized chart review and abstraction. Charts from three years (2010-2013) were accessed. Each subject’s number of decayed or filled permanent surfaces (DFS) and/or decayed or filled primary surfaces (dfs) was recorded. DS patients expressed slightly higher caries rates compared to healthy patients in both primary and permanent teeth; however the difference was not statistically significant. When subgroups of DS and non-DS “caries free” subjects were compared, DS patients were slightly more likely to be caries free (17.1%) than non-Down Syndrome healthy patients (11.6%). However this difference was not statistically significant. This could be attributed to the rate of hypdontia and delayed eruption in DS population.