Caries experience in children with Marfan syndrome – a non- interventional case-control study**

Introduction: The Marfan syndrome is a rare connective tissue disorder with autosomal dominant inheritance. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the caries experience in children and adolescents with Marfan syndrome. Materials and Methods: 31 children with Marfan syndrome (Marfan group; mean age: 8.77 ± 3.72 years) and 31 systemically healthy children (control group; mean age: 9.77 ± 3.72 years) were dentally examined according to WHO criteria. The recorded parameters included the dmft/DMFT (differentiated into dt/DT, mt/MT, ft/FT), the dmfs/DMFS (differentiated into ds/DS, ms/MS, fs/FS), the caries restoration index (CRI), and the hygiene index (HI). Statistical evaluation was carried out using t-test for independent samples and chi-square test (p ≤ 0.05) using the statistics software program IBM SPSS Sta-tistics 26. Results: The children of the Marfan group had a significantly lower dmft (p = 0.040) and ft (p = 0.040) than children in the control group. There were no significant differences between the two groups when considering permanent dentition. However, the Marfan group tended to have a lower DMFT (p = 0.064), DT (p = 0.076) and FT (p = 0.059) than the control group. The HI was significantly higher in the control group than in the Marfan group (p 0.001). Conclusion: In the present study, children and adolescents with Marfan syndrome did not show a higher caries experience compared to a systemically healthy control group. Keywords: DMFS, DMFT, Marfan syndrome, adolescents, caries experience, children