Dental manifestations of gastroesophageal reflux disease in children

Introduction: Dental erosion (DE) is a common condition in both adults and children. Numerous studies involving confirmation of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and the assessment of dental erosions have shown a significant association between these conditions, but for some authors it is still not clear if GERD plays a significant role in dental pathological tooth wear.

Aim: To compare the dental health status of children with GERD and a healthy control group.

Material and methods: Dental examinations were conducted in 57 children aged 7-18 years (mean 12.4) with a definitive history of GERD and 57 randomly chosen healthy children of the same age and gender. Data were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U-test.

Results: This investigation has shown that GERD children were at an increased risk of developing dental erosions compared to healthy control subjects (66.7% vs. 26.3%).

Conclusions: The present study provides clear evidence of a sig­nificant association between dental erosions and GERD. Early erosive damage to the permanent teeth may compromise the dentition for the entire lifetime; therefore a pediatrician should routinely refer children and toddlers suffering from GERD to a pediatric dentist, to confirm the presence of erosions and if needed restore the damaged teeth.