Original scientific paper
The Prevalence of Oral and Dental Anomalies in Children with Developmental Disturbances
Jelka Jukić
Ilija Škrinjarić
Domagoj Glavina
Zlatko Ulovec
Abstract
The prevalence of oral and dental anomalies was assessed in children with developmental disturbances (DD). The study sample consisted of 606 children and young adults aged 5-20 years (303 DD and 303 control subjects). The group of DD children included 176 children with mental retardation (MR), 70 children with hearing impairment (HI), and 57 children with visual impairment (VI). The association of oral and dental anomalies with minor physical anomalies was studied. Significant differences were found between the two groups in the prevalence of oral and dental anomalies. Hypodontia was more common in DD children (9.2%) than in control subjects (2.0%) (p < 0.001). Median diastema was also more common in DD children than in control subjects (20.8% and 11.6%, respectively) (p < 0.002). The prevalence of maxillary labial frenum was higher in DD children (6.6%) than in control subjects (1.3%) (p < 0.001). Both groups showed a high association of labial frenum and median diastema. A significant association between hypodontia and microdontia was observed in control subjects. A high value of weighted Waldrop score (W) was obtained in the group of VI children. So, W was 6.00 in the group with microdontia, 5.43 in MR children with hypertrophic lingual frenum (ankyloglossia), 4.80 in HI children with dens invaginatus, and 4.45 in MR children with ankyloglossia. The high prevalence of oral and dental anomalies, and high weighted Waldrop score of minor anomalies in DD children suggests that developmental disturbances during early development in this group could be attributed to a common underlying factor.
Keywords
oral and dental anomalies; minor physical anomalies; prevalence
Hrčak ID:
2941
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2002.
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