Oral hygiene status and intensity of gingivitis in adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Background. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is a common multifactorial rheumatic disease that has an impact on the state of periodontal tissues due to the disruption of the immunoinflammatory response processes. Scientific research in this area is quite relevant and is aimed at developing effective algorithms, prevention and treatment tactics for inflammatory periodontal diseases in this category of patients. Purpose – to determine the hygienic dental index and analyze the level of gingival inflammation in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, depending on the subtype of the rheumatic disease and the prescribed therapy. Materials and Methods. Basic dental examination was performed with determination of the state of oral hygiene using the patient hygiene performance index and assessment of the level of gingival inflammation using the Papillary-Marginal-Alveolar index of 80 patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and 20 controls based on presence of general disease, basic medication and disease subtype. Results. In the study, patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis had an average of 3.6 times higher levels of gingival inflammation and 3 times worse oral hygiene index values compared to the control group. The results of the study indicate no connection between basic medical support and the state of oral hygiene but demons- trate the presence of such with the severity of gingivitis – patients taking the drug adalimumab and methotrexate demonstrate a greater degree of difference in the analyzed indicator relative to the control group. Adolescents with rheumatoid factor- positive polyarticular and oligoarticular variants demonstrate higher patient hygiene performance index values compared to the control group. Patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis rheumatoid factor-positive and negative polyarticular and enthesitis-associated variants of the disease have a higher intensity of inflam- matory processes in the gums compared to controls. Conclusions. The obtained results lead to expanding knowledge about the course of periodontal diseases in juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients and highlight the development of effective dental prevention schemes.