Oral Health Status and Treatment Needs of Asthmatic Children

Asthma has become one of the most common chronic diseases in industrialized countries, and its prevalence is increasing throughout the world.Asthma affects all age groups and is often persistent, accounting for a large proportion of health care spending and loss of work. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways characterized by attacks of bronchoconstriction causing shortness of breath, coughing, chest tightness, and rapid breathing. The severity of asthma can be classified as mild, moderate, or severe.It presents an increased prevalence in preschool children and one out of every ten preschool age children has asthma disorder. Asthma is a growing public health problem affecting over 300 million people worldwide. It is estimated that an additional 100 million may be diagnosed with asthma by 2025. In India, about 15-20 million people are suffering from bronchial asthma. Several studies have been done to investigate the effect of asthma on oral health. In spite of the confounding results, the majority of the studies conclude that children with asthma have higher caries prevalence than their nonasthmatic counterparts.