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May 3, 2026

Dental caries in childhood cancer survivors.

Key Points

To compare the prevalence and experience of dental caries in childhood cancer survivors with healthy controls.
113 childhood cancer survivors aged 0-18 were studied after cancer treatment from 2017 to 2021.
Matched healthy controls were selected from the Norwegian National Population Register based on age and sex.
Dental caries experience was assessed using DMFT/dmft and DMFS/dmfs indices, analyzed via Poisson regression.
No significant differences in the overall prevalence of dental caries between CCS and healthy controls at the tooth level, indicating effective dental care.
The data suggests that follow-up and awareness of oral health can limit dental caries development in pediatric cancer patients.

Abstract

PURPOSE: To investigate and compare the prevalence and experience of dental caries in childhood cancer survivors (CCS) with that in healthy controls. METHODS: A total of 113 CCS (0-18 years) who completed cancer treatment between 2017 and 2021 at Haukeland University Hospital were invited. Two healthy controls per CCS were randomly selected from the Norwegian National Population Register and matched by age and sex. Decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT/dmft) and surfaces (DMFS/dmfs) were used as indices of dental caries experience. The difference in the number of affected teeth/surfaces per patient between CCS and controls was assessed via Poisson regression, with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: MFT. CONCLUSIONS: This study compared caries experience in CCS and matched healthy controls and found no overall differences at the tooth level, indicating that awareness and follow-up of oral health in paediatric cancer patients may play a role in limiting caries development and disease burden.

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