Asociación entre el consumo de macronutrientes de la dieta y caries en adultos y adultos mayores diabéticos tipo 2

objectives: higher caries rates have been reported for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients (dm). changes in dietary patterns may be partly responsible. the aim of this study was to examine a potential association between dietary macronutrient composition and caries experience in dm patients. methods: thirty three adults with dm and thirty seven controls, not affected by dm, were examined to assess coronal caries through dmft index and root caries by icdas ii. a 24-hr diet recall survey was used to determine dietary macronutrient composition supplemented with standardized tables and expressed as grams /day, kilocalories/nutrient and percentage of nutrient/day. results were compared using kruskal-wallis and mann-whitney. a correlation analysis was performed and a linear regression model was built for a potential association between macronutrient composition and coronal or root caries. a 95% significance level was set. results: dm patients showed lower remaining teeth, more fillings and more root caries (p<0.05) than controls. lower carbohydrate consumption (p=0.021), but higher protein intake (p=0.0405) was observed in dm patients as compared with controls. a statistically significant association between an increased protein consumption and higher percentage of root caries was found in dm patients (p<0.001). conclusion: although differences in macronutrient consumption in dm patients are not correlated with differential rates of coronal caries, higher protein consumption appears to be associated with higher prevalence of root caries.