Oral Health Status and Dental Treatment Needs of 5-12-year-old Children with Disabilities Attending Special Schools in Western Maharashtra, India

Prevalence of dental caries among children and adolescents with intellectual disability in India: A scoping review

BACKGROUND

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities are at a higher risk of developing dental caries. Few scoping reviews have been conducted in India to understand their issues. We aimed to summarise the distribution and risk factors of dental caries among children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities in India.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted based on the Arksey O Malley framework. Quality assessment of studies, descriptive and thematic analyses were also conducted.

RESULTS

We charted, collated, and summarised from four databases. Thirty-one studies met the study criteria consisting of children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Median caries prevalence was 70%, decayed missing and fIlled permenant teeth (DMFT) was 2.4, decayed missing and filled decidous teeth (dmft) was 2.36, and DMFS was 3.7. Major determinants were the severity of disability, socioeconomic status and parents' education. Oral care and dental visits were inadequate.

CONCLUSION

Further exploration is required to improve access and reduce caries experience and prevalence among children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in India.

Periodontal status of students living with disability in Amhara region, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Background

Periodontal disease is the most common oral health problem among individuals living with disabilities. Any physical impairment and/or mental handicap can compromise the capability to perform oral health care. Individuals with poor oral hygiene practice were prone to dental caries, periodontal disease, and upper respiratory tract infections. Despite the high prevalence of disabled people in Ethiopia, data are scarce about their periodontal status. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and determinant factors of periodontal disease among students living with disability in the Amhara region.

Methods

A school-based cross-sectional study was done on eight special needs schools in Amhara regional state from November 30, 2020, to April 10, 2021. A simple random sampling technique using a computer random generator was employed to recruit the study participants. The participants were interviewed for sociodemographic characteristics, oral hygiene practice, type of disability, and medical condition through a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. The periodontal status of the participants was evaluated using the community periodontal index (CPI). Data entry was done using the Epi-data and analyzed using SPSS 26. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of periodontal disease at a 5% level of significance.

Results

A total of 443 study participants were involved with a mean age of 15.84 ± 3.882. Among these, 27.5% (95%CI 23.4–32.0) had a periodontal pocket depth of ≥ 4 mm, and 56.7% had bleeding on probing. The prevalence of periodontal disease was higher in participants with poor oral health status (52.2%), dental caries (34.8%), class-2 malocclusion (46.1%), and low monthly income (30.4%), visually impaired (30%), and mentally disorder (29.9%). Age of above 18 years (AOR = 3.41, 95%CI 1.40, 8.28), low family monthly income (AOR = 2.21; 95%CI 1.22, 4.03), malocclusion (AOR = 1.59, 95%CI 1.01, 2.54), poor oral health status (AOR = 9.41; 95%CI 4.92, 17.98), and dental caries (AOR = 1.85, 95%CI 1.21, 2.82) were independent predictors of periodontal disease.

Conclusions

A substantial amount of disabled school students in the study area had periodontal disease. The study found that there was a statistically significant association between age, family monthly income, malocclusion, oral health status, and dental caries with periodontal disease. The implementation of school oral health programs has a great benefit for the oral health status of disabled school students.

Oral health status and treatment needs of children with special health care needs in rural and urban areas of Hyderabad - A cross sectional study

Aim:

The aim of the cross-sectional study was to ascertain the oral health status and treatment needs of special health care need children of age group 3–16 years in rural and urban areas of Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Materials and Method:

To assess and compare the caries status, oral health status, oral hygiene measures, diet and treatment needs in rural and urban population. The data collected was processed and analyzed using the SPSS statistical software program.

Results:

Among 1000 subjects in rural and urban population highly significant difference was observed for Oral hygiene aids (P < 0.003) and for DMFT (P < 0.008) and no significant difference for dmft (P > 0.26). OHIs status showed no difference in primary and permanent in both rural and urban population (P > 1). Filled and missed were in DMFT, dmft was very low even though there were carious tooth in study population. Most of the children in rural and urban population required varied treatment needs like oral prophylaxis, restoration, pulp therapy, crowns and extractions.

Conclusion:

High prevalence of dental caries and the need for restorative care was noted in these children emphasizing the necessity of change of attitude towards oral health and improved oral care by repeated counselling of parents by primary health care physicians.

Association between intelligent quotient and oral health conditions among 13-15 year old intellectually disabled children

Objectives This study aimed to assess the relationship between intelligence quotient and oral health conditions among intellectually disabled children. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 13-15 year old intellectually disabled children at National Institute of Mental Health, Hyderabad. The survey comprised of classification of intellectually disabled children based on their intelligent quotient (IQ) levels along with clinical oral examination using World health organization (WHO) oral health assessment form (2013). Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 21.0. p<0.05 was statistically significant. Results The mean age of study participants was 13.73 ± 3.04 years. Based on IQ levels, majority of the participants had moderate retardation (41.8%) and when oral health problems were compared, greater than 50% had gingivitis with mean DMFT scores of 2.48 ± 2.1. A significant higher mean DMFT scores were observed with profound retardation (4.74 ± 2.17) (p=0.000) whereas greater preponderance for oral health problems was observed among moderately retarded subjects. Conclusions Overall majority of the study participants were moderately retarded children and had gingivitis. The higher mean DMFT score was observed with profound retardation with statistical significance. However, Greater percentage of oral health problems were among moderately retarded children. Hence intellectually disabled children should be encouraged to take care about oral health themselves under the guidance of their care takers.

A special needs dentistry study of institutionalized individuals with intellectual disability in West Sumatra Indonesia

People with intellectual disability have a higher risk of oral health problems. This study assessed the clinical oral health status and behaviors and treatment needs of people living in an institution in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. We quantified oral health status of 65 individuals with intellectual disability using Oral Hygiene Index Simplified (OHIs), Angle’s classification of malocclusion, Community Periodontal Index and Treatment Need (CPITN), and decay index and also recorded their brushing behavior. We found that males had significantly lower OHIs (p < 0.001), more malocclusion (p < 0.001), greater caries number (p < 0.001), greater CPITN (p = 0.001) and higher need of dental treatment (p < 0.01) than females. Additionally, we found that high caries number was associated with poor OHIS, malocclusion, periodontal disease, and dependent brushing behavior (p < 0.001). The findings of this study imply that there is a gap in appropriate oral health care in individuals with intellectual disability. There should be a greater focus on providing appropriate oral health education to people with intellectual disability, improving the health literacy and quality of care of caregivers, and providing more dentists with specialized training in special needs dentistry.