Oral Manifestation and Caries Experience in Pre-Dialysis Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are prone to develop oral lesions due to the disease process or the therapy or both. The systemic problems started to develop in the pre-dialysis stages of CKD. Oral lesions and caries experience are the non-traditional risk factors in progression of CKD. This research was conducted to study and compare the oral manifestation and caries experience of pre-dialysis patients and healthy subjects in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). Fifty-eight patients, which consist of 29 pre-dialysis patients and 29 controls were recruited. CKD patients (stage III and IV) who attended nephrology clinic and CKD Resource Centre Unit of HUSM were selected. The control group consisted of healthy patients without any systemic disease who attended dental clinic of HUSM. The patients were examined for the oral manifestation. The decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) index were also recorded. Oral lesions were present in 96.6% of pre-dialysis patients and 51.7% of control group (p < 0.001). The significant oral manifestations in pre-dialysis patients were xerostomia, halitosis, abnormal taste, mucosa pallor, enamel hypoplasia, gingival enlargement and abnormal lip pigmentation. There was significant difference in caries experience between pre-dialysis patients and healthy controls but no correlation between estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and caries experience in the pre-dialysis patients. Thus, dental screening needs to be done to control the problems. Future studies with multicentred and larger sample size are warranted to explore the magnitude of this problem.