Assessment of Oral Hygiene and Gingivitis in Adolescents With and Without Cystic Fibrosis.

Purpose: To assess oral hygiene, gingivitis, and the association between them for adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) compared to nonCF controls. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of adolescents with CF aged 12 to 17 years (n=27), compared to two non-CF control groups: Medicaid-enrolled adolescents with special health care needs (ASHCN; n=60) and healthy Medicaid-enrolled adolescents (n=185). Dental plaque was a proxy for oral hygiene, and gingival bleeding was a proxy for gingivitis. This study employed confounder-adjusted binomial logistic regression to compare outcomes between adolescents with CF and controls. Results: After adjusting for confounders, adolescents with CF had significantly poorer oral hygiene than controls (CF versus ASHCN odds ratio [OR] = 2.9, 95 percent confidence interval [95% CI] = 2.0 to 4.4, P<0.001; CF versus healthy OR = 1.7, 95% CI=1.3 to 2.2, P<0.001), but there was no significant difference in gingivitis (CF versus ASHCN OR=1.3, 95% CI=0.87 to 1.9, P=0.21; CF versus healthy OR = 0.80, 95% CI=0.60 to 0.99, P=0.04). Poor oral hygiene was significantly associated with gingivitis for all adolescents (CF OR=1.2, 95% CI=1.1 to 1.4, P<0.001; ASHCN OR = 1.8, 95% CI=1.6 to 2.0, P<0.001; healthy OR = 1.2, 95% CI=1.1 to 1.3, P<0.001). Conclusions: Adolescents with CF had poorer oral hygiene than non-CF controls but similar levels of gingivitis. Future efforts should identify factors that protect adolescents with CF from gingivitis.