Obese children who have type 2 diabetes tend to have poorer oral health than those who do not have the disease, according to the University of Buffalo (UB). Its study looked at 3 groups of children between the ages of 10 and 19 years: 10 who were normal weight, 14 who were obese, and 16 who were obese with type 2 diabetes.
“We found a trend toward more periodontal disease in obese children with type 2 diabetes,” said Lucy Mastrandrea, MD, PhD, senior author and associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the UB Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “It turns out that while obese adolescents with type 2 diabetes typically do have access to dental health, often through federally funded insurance, they do not routinely go to the dentist.”
The connection between poor oral health and adults with diabetes is well known, Mastrandrea said, with oral inflammation detected in adults with diabetes as well as in adults with prediabetes. Yet there haven’t been any studies on the oral health of children with obesity or diabetes or on the pediatric microbiome, according to the researchers, who believe further investigations into the microbiome would be beneficial.
“The most important finding of this research is that, like adults, children with type 2 diabetes appear more vulnerable to periodontal inflammation than normal lean or obese children,” said Frank A. Scannapieco, PhD, DMD, chair and professor of the department of oral biology at the UB School of Dental Medicine and study co-author. “It provides justification for the need for additional attention to oral hygiene in children with type 2 diabetes.”
“This is the first study to look at the salivary microbiome in pediatric populations,” said Mastrandrea. “We know that having inflammation anywhere in your body may influence your microbiome. At the same time, we know that having diabetes may influence your microbiome or, alternatively, that changes in the microbiome may increase your risk for diabetes.”
Mastrandrea is interested in exploring in a longitudinal study whether better dental care right after diagnosis might help mitigate the trend toward more periodontal disease in children with type 2 diabetes. She also is interested in whether the same trend holds true for children with type 1 diabetes.
The study, “Salivary Inflammatory Markers and Microbiome in Normoglycemic Lean and Obese Children Compared to Obese Children With type 2 Diabetes,” was published by PLOS ONE.
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