RESUMEN
Objective: To compare the caries experience and the kinds of dental treatment between children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children without systemic disease who were all treated under general anesthesia. Methods: Totally 103 children with ASD who received dental treatments under general anesthesia in 13 professional dental hospitals around China from April to November 2016 were included in the present study. A group of 97 children without systemic disease, according to the age, gender and application propensity score matching method, were chosen as controls, who received dental treatments under general anesthesia between January 2015 to November 2018 in the same hospitals as the children with ASD. Decay missing filling tooth (DMFT/dmft, DMFT for permanent teeth and dmft for primary teeth) indices of two groups of children and the contents of the dental treatments under general anesthesia were analyzed. Results: No significant difference of DMFT/dmft index ï¼»M (Q 25, Q 75)ï¼½ was found between children with ASD group ï¼»0 (0, 3)/11(8, 14)ï¼½ and control group ï¼»0 (0, 3)/9(7, 13)ï¼½ (P>0.05). The average number of dental treatments under general anesthesia and the average number of endodontic treatment in children with ASD were 13 (11, 15) and 3 (2, 6) teeth respectively, while those in the control group were 12 (9, 14) and 2 (1, 4) teeth respectively, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01, P<0.05). Conclusions: No significant difference was found between children with ASD and the normal controls who receive dental treatments under general anesthesia in DMFT/dmft index, but the treatment needs of children with ASD is relatively higher, and their tooth decay is relatively severer.