Dental caries and vitamin D(3) in children with growth hormone deficiency: A STROBE compliant study

Vitamin D may prevent dental caries. To date, no attempts have been made to examine the correlation between the incidence of caries and the concentrations of vitamin D in children with pituitary growth hormone deficiency. The study observed patients of the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology of the University Paediatric Hospital of the Medical University of Lublin treated with human recombinant growth hormone for pituitary growth hormone deficiency (GHD). The study was conducted between October 2014 and June 2015. The study group consisted of 121 children and adolescents (6–17 years old), including 56 children from rural areas and 65 children from urban areas. The study group was stratified by area of residence. In our study, the increase in vitamin D(3) [25(OH)D] levels reduced the D component by 0.66 per each 10 ng/mL of vitamin D(3) concentration. The percentage of children with active caries in rural areas is 91.07% (n = 51), which is significantly higher than the percentage of children with active caries in urban areas (81.54%, n = 53). To date, information regarding the potential possibility of reducing the incidence of dental caries by means of increasing the levels of vitamin D was sidelined by paediatricians and dentists alike. Therefore, this aspect of caries prevention should be highlighted.