Title

Prevalence of dental caries and oral hygiene among specially-abled children

Authors

Aya Misrabi^1,*, Dinesh Sharma², Monika Sharma^2,*, Shaun Uppal³ & Mrinalini Sadal⁴

Affiliation

¹General Dentist, Damascus, Syria; ²Department of Dentistry, Ananta Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Institute, Udaipur, India; ³MpH-D Ontario, Canada; ⁴Private Practitioner, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Aya Misrabi - E - mail: ayamisrabi97@gmail.com
Dinesh Sharma - E - mail: drdineshsharma1812@gmail.com
Monika Sharma - E - mail: mailmonikasharma@gmail.com
Shaun Uppal - E - mail: shaunuppal@hotmail.com
Mrinalini Sadal - E - mail: minusadal1998@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received October 1, 2024; Revised October 31, 2024; Accepted October 31, 2024, Published October 31, 2024

Abstract

Dental caries (tooth decay) is a common oral health problem among children, significantly impacting their overall well-being and quality of life. Therefore, it is of interest to find the prevalence of dental caries and oral hygiene status in specially-abled children. This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of dental caries and oral hygiene status in 225 specially-abled children. The participants, aged <18 years, were included in the study. The study included children with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities, ensuring a diverse representation of conditions that may impact oral health. A total of 225 especially abled children participated in the study, with a mean age of 12.5± 3.4 years. The participants included 130 males (57.8%) and 95 females (42.2%). Children with intellectual disabilities exhibited the highest mean DMFT score (4.2 ± 2.3), with 75% of them affected by dental caries. In comparison, children with physical disabilities had a mean DMFT score of 3.6 ± 1.9 and a caries prevalence of 62%.This study concludes that the prevalence of dental caries and poor oral hygiene status is notably high among specially-abled children, particularly those with intellectual disabilities.

Keywords

Dental caries, physical disability, oral hygiene & special children

Citation

Misrabi et al. Bioinformation 20(10): 1238-1243 (2024)

Edited by

Neelam Goyal & Shruti Dabi

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.