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Dietary Sugar Exposure and Oral Health Status in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case-control Study

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Abstract

This case-control study compared dietary sugar exposure and oral health status between children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), aged 5–12 years (n = 136, each). Data regarding socio-demographics, child’s oral hygiene practices and behavior, diet-related behavior, oral habits and dental trauma were obtained. Child’s diet on the previous day was recorded using 24-h recall method and sugar exposure was calculated using Dental Diet Diary (D3) mobile application. Oral Hygiene Index-Simplified (OHI-S), deft and DMFT were recorded. Results showed no significant differences in sugar exposure, deft and DMFT between the groups. Although oral hygiene practices were significantly better in children with ASD, their OHI-S was significantly worse. Significantly more children with ASD reported mouth-breathing, bruxism and self-injurious habits.

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Acknowledgments

The data collection for the study was performed between December 2018 and September 2019 and the writing of manuscript spanned from January 2020 to September 2020. This study was conducted towards the dissertation of Dr. Lakshmi Moorthy; which was submitted in December 2019.

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  1. Lakshmi Moorthy

    Present address: Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, DY Patil University-School of Dentistry, Navi Mumbai, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, DY Patil University-School of Dentistry, Navi Mumbai, India

    Uma B. Dixit & Rachita C. Kole

  2. Division of Neurology, Epilepsy and Developmental Pediatrics, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital, Sion, Mumbai, India

    Mona P. Gajre

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  1. Lakshmi Moorthy
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Contributions

LM and UBD contributed to the study conception and design. LM and RK conducted the study and collected data with guidance from MPG. UBD contributed to statistical analysis and data interpretation. All authors contributed to writing of the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Uma B. Dixit.

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Uma B. Dixit—Formerly from Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, DY Patil University-School of Dentistry, Navi Mumbai, India.

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Moorthy, L., Dixit, U.B., Kole, R.C. et al. Dietary Sugar Exposure and Oral Health Status in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case-control Study. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 2523–2534 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05151-0

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