Dental Erosion in Patients with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) in a Sample of Patients Referred to the Motahari Clinic, Shiraz, Iran

Statement of Problem: Systematic reviews of the literature show that the dental erosion is associated with the gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).The prevalence of the problem may not be exclusively similar in different countries. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) with dental erosion in a sample of Iranian population regarding the standing difference in the Iranian oral hygiene and diet. Materials and Method: 140 patients with the average age of 30 to 50 years old comprised the study group. The participants were already eligible for the endoscopic examination, diagnosed by their gastroenterologist. All patients completed a detailed questionnaire regarding the medical and dental situations. After completing the questionnaire and before endoscopy, dental examination was performed by two blinded dentists.The endoscopy was then performed by a gastroenterologist and the patients were divided into three groups of healthy, suspected to GERD, and positive GERD. Data were collected and analyzed by Chi- Square test. The cross tabulation test was performed to compare the qualitative variants and discover the correlations. The statistical significance was adopted as: p < 0.05. Results: The prevalence of dental erosion in GERD patients (22.6%) was found to be higher than the suspected (5.3%) and the healthy (7%) individuals. Conclusion: This study declared the GERD patients are at higher risk of developing dental erosion compared to the healthy individuals in a sample of Iranian population.