ISSN 2756-3421
African Journal of Dentistry Vol. 1 (3), pp. 019-022, December, 2013. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Dental erosion in patients with gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD)
Golsa Alavi1, Ali A. Alavi1, Mehdi Saberfiroozi2, Amir H. Sarbazi1 and Mehran Motamedi1*
1Department of Operative Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
2Department of Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].
Accepted 3 January, 2012
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) on dental erosion. The study group comprised 140 patients with the average age of 30 to 50 years old. All subjects completed a detailed questionnaire regarding dental and medical situations. Dental examination was performed by two examiners agreement method, and endoscopy was done by a gastroenterologist. Patients were divided into three groups of healthy, suspected of GERD, and with GERD. Data were collected and analyzed by Chi-Square test. The prevalence of dental erosion in GERD patients (22.6%) was found to be higher than suspected (5.3%) and healthy (7%) subjects. This study has showed that GERD patients are at increased risk of developing dental erosion compared to healthy subjects.
Key words: Dental erosion, reflux, heart burn.