Eating disorder risk behavior and dental implications among adolescents

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To compare the occurrence of tooth erosion (TE) and dental caries (DC) in adolescents with and without risk behavior for eating disorders (EDs). METHOD: A controlled cross-sectional study involving 1,203 randomly selected female students aged 15-18 years was conducted in Brazil. Risk behavior for EDs was evaluated through the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh and dental examinations were performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of risk behavior for EDs was 6%. Twenty adolescents (1.7%) were identified with severe risk behavior for EDs and matched to 80 adolescents without such risk. Among the severe risk group, 45% of adolescents were affected by TE and 80% by DC compared with 8.8 and 51.3%, respectively, in the matched group. Adolescents with severe risk had higher chances for TE (OR = 10.04; 95% CI = 2.5-39.4). DISCUSSION: In this study, a severe risk behavior for EDs was significantly associated with TE, but not with DC.