Prevalência de lesões de mucosa oral e fatores associados em recém-nascidos brasileiros

Abstract

Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in newborns and factors associated with its occurrence such as sociodemographics and economic factors, pre-birth gestational habits, maternal health and newborn health gestational age and birth weight. Methods: The sample was comprised of 411 newborns born at the Clinical Hospital of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (HC-UFMG) and hospitalized at the Hospitals rooming-in. Newborns up to 27 days old were examined by a pre-trained and calibrated dentist for oral cavity examination. The newborns were examined on their beds. The Kappa test was used to verify intra-examiner agreement (Kappa=0.90) and inter-examiner (Kappa=0.90). A high agreement is observed when the Kappa value is higher than 0.81. All newborn infants alive and hospitalized in HC-UFMG were included, excluding those with craniofacial anomalies, cleft palate, anemia, heart disease, and those whose parents did not authorize participation in the study. The dependent variable of this study was oral al lesions and oral alterations, measured by means of clinical examination: inclusion cysts: Bohn's nodules, Epstein pearls, dental lamina cysts and mucocele. Babies had the oral cavity photographed during the examinations. The main independent variables were: gestational age and birth weight, collected through medical records. The confounding variables collected for analysis were: gestational habits pre-birth and socioeconomic level, collected through a questionnaire answered by mothers. Data were analyzed using Chi-square test, Linear by Linear and Fisher Exact tests, and Poisson regression with robust variance was used for multivariate analysis. The significance level was set at 5%. Results: The prevalence found for inclusion cysts was 65%.The most common oral lesion was Epstein pearls (n=164; 39.9%). Epstein pearls was associated with low birth weight (p=0.047) and work during pregnancy (p=0.025). The presence of Bohn's (19.5%) nodules was associated with the need to stay in the neonatal incubator (p=0.002) and assistance governmental (0.006). Dental laminal cysts (5.6%) were not statistically significant. Mucocele (3.4%) was associated with some type of health problem in the gestational period (p=0.032), preterm birth (p=0.007) and low birth weight (p=0.005). Conclusions: Mucosal lesions are associated with socioeconomic factors such as: work during pregnancy and receiving some kind of government assistance, characteristics of maternal health and newborn health, prematurity and low birth weight.