Original scientific paper
Dental Caries in Disabled Children
Nataša Ivančić Jokić
Martina Majstorović
Danko Bakarčić
Andrej Katalinić
Lajos Szirovicza
Abstract
The aim of the study was to evaluate oral health conditions and dental caries status in disabled and healthy children.
Two groups of randomly selected children 3–17 years old were examined. The first group comprised 80 children with
disabilities (cerebral palsy, mental retardation, Down syndrome, autism and hearing-speaking disorders) and the second
(control) group included 80 healthy children. Examined children were selected from several institutions which take
care of disabled persons, kindergardens and four elementary schools. Clinical examination was performed by using a
mirror and a probe and revealed the presence of dental caries, missing (extracted) and filled teeth. All clinically detected
cavitations were registered as dental caries. The degree of oral hygiene was evaluated according to the OHI-S index values,
which was determined by marking the plaque with 1% eozine solution. The values of OHI-S index ranged from
3.8–4.53 in disabled children and 2.73–2.84 in healthy children. In disabled children, the average dft values were 3.42 in
deciduous teeth and 5.24 in mixed dentition. In healthy children, the average dft values were 1.43 in deciduous teeth and
5.1 in mixed dentition. The average DMFT index in disabled children was 1.41 for mixed and 6.39 for permanent
dentitions. In healthy children, the average DMFT values were 1.23 in mixed and 4.76 in permanent dentitions. In general,
the results revealed significantly poor level of oral hygiene and quite high level of caries prevalence in both disabled
and healthy children, accentuating the need to reorganize preventive care measurments and improve dental care, particularly
in disabled children in Croatia.
Keywords
oral health; disabled children; dental caries; DMFT/dft index
Hrčak ID:
27298
URI
Publication date:
4.1.2007.
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