Young children: The relationship between weight and cavities

ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2006) — New evidence from pediatric dentists at the University at Buffalo has shown that, contrary to previous findings, most young children with decayed “baby” teeth are not underweight, and actually may be overweight or at risk of being overweight.

A study of children ages 2-5 who underwent aggressive dental treatment under general anesthesia in the operating room by UB’s pediatric dentists at the Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo found that at least a quarter of the patients were over the recommended weight for their age or close to it, unlike their peers who had good teeth. Results of the research were presented at the International Association of Dental Research meeting held March 9-12 in Orlando, Fla.

“Prior studies in the 1990s found that children with rampant tooth decay appeared to be underweight, and this was attributed to a failure to thrive,” said Hiran Perinpanayagam, D.D.S., Ph.D., an endodontist and assistant professor in UB’s School of Dental Medicine and senior author on the study.

“In contrast, a more recent study found that the children with tooth decay did not have reduced bodyweight. Given these conflicting results, we thought a more definitive study was needed.”

Periodontal disease is a risk factor for heart disease

Boston University researchers show conclusively periodontal disease is a risk factor for coronary heart disease in men less than 60 years-old independent of established cardiovascular risk factors in a study released April 1 in Circulation, a publication of the American Heart Association.

“This is the first study to find a significant association between chronic periodontitis and the risk of coronary heart disease, even after adjusting for important confounding factors,” says Dr. Thomas Dietrich, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research at Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine and one of the study’s authors.

Researchers took into account factors including age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, cholesterol, and blood pressure in 1,203 men in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging and Dental Longitudinal Studies. The men received comprehensive medical and dental examinations every three years for up to 35 years.

The full text of the study, “Age-Dependent Associations Between Chronic Periodontitis/Edentulism and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease,” is available online at here.