Rodrigo Osorio-Larraín; Francisca Morales-Lara; Jennifer Palacios-Pereira & Camila Corral-Nuñez

Summary

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological disorder that affects approximately 2 out of every 1,000 live births. It is described as a group of developmental disorders of movement, balance, and posture, which cause activity limitation. Some studies have suggested that CP may increase the risk of dental trauma injuries (DTI). The objective of this study was to review the available scientific evidence on the prevalence and trends of DTI in people with CP, and to compare it with the prevalence of people without it. A systematic search was carried out in Pubmed, Scielo and Lilacs. Titles and abstracts were evaluated, excluding clinical case reports, systematic reviews, duplicate articles and/ or not relevant to the topic. Articles reporting the prevalence of DTI in people with CP were included. It was extracted information about the study type, methodology, prevalence of DTI, type of tooth, type of DTI in CP subjects and the prevalence of DTI from the control group, when available. A total of 32 articles were identified, of which 12 studies were selected and included for the systematic review and of these four were used in the meta-analysis. The prevalence of DTI in people with CP reported in these studies showed a range between 10.6-76.5 %. The upper incisors were the type of tooth most affected by DTI. Only four studies compared the DTI prevalence with a control group. The prevalence of DTI was higher in subjects with CP than in people without it (odds ratio 1.58 [95 % CI = 0.66 - 3.77]). However, this difference was not statistically significant and the included studies were highly heterogeneous.

KEY WORDS: tooth injuries, cerebral palsy, systematic review.

How to cite this article

OSORIO-LARRAÍN, R.; MORALES-LARA, F.; PALACIOS-PEREIRA, J.; CORRAL-NÚÑEZ, C. Dental trauma injuries in cerebral palsy. Systematic review and meta-analysis. Int. J.Odontostomat., 16(1):73-80, 2022.