Oral Lesions in Patients Dealing With Eating Disorders: an Epidemiological Study

Eating disorders (ED) are common among young. Anorexia (AN) and bulimia (BN) are the most prevalent ED. The American Psychiatric Association's guidelines state a 0.3% AN prevalence among young girls and a 0.1 to 4.2% BN prevalence. Men are not excluded: even if ED are more frequent in females (14-18 years), 1 man off to 10 can be diagnosed with ED. Unfortunately, the onset age is decreasing. In the last few years, always more preteens patients are diagnosed with ED: they generally refer a garbled self perception of body image. ED can have oral manifestations, such as: mucosal lesions, dental erosion, glandular hypertrophy, xerostomia and salivary disorders, dental caries These are the most common manifestations observed in patients with eating disorders, after a routine dental visit. There is not strong evidence that dental caries may be directly related to disordered eating habits; as a matter of fact results are controversial. Despite that, all the studies examined agree on the association between signs listed above and food disorders. Univocal percentages have not been reported in the scientific literature. For instance, a systematic review, dated 2016, showed that dental erosion is diagnosed in 45% of ED people, while other studies documented 70% patients affected by erosion. Another example reported is teeth hypersensitivity. According to some studies, 56% of ED patients reported such complaints, instead of other researches documenting 22% hypersensitivity impairment. As for dental caries, results are dissimilar. Authors showed 78% ED subjects diagnosed with dental caries. Other studies reported almost 50% patients with tooth decay, without statistically significant difference in the values between ED people and controls. All these differences are probably due to the different stages of eating disorders and diagnosis, and oral signs found. Different ages are also considered. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the prevalence of oral cavity lesions among people affected by eating disorders.