Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Karpaga Vinayaka Dental College, Chennai, India.
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Saveetha Dental College & Hospitals, Saveetha University, Chennai, India.
Indian J Dent Res. 2021 Apr-Jun;32(2):236-242. doi: 10.4103/ijdr.IJDR_809_18.
The negligence of oral health combined with barriers in accessing adequate oral care is more commonly encountered in children with sensory deficits. In a developing country like India, there is a severe lacuna in data regarding the oral health status and treatment needs in this group of population. The purpose of this study is to assess the oral health status and treatment needs of children with sensory deficits, using WHO criteria of Basic Oral Health Survey Methods, 1997.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using the WHO criteria (Basic Oral Health Survey, 1997); questionnaire data regarding the demographic profile, oral hygiene status, degree of sensory impairment were recorded and tabulated. The Chi-square test was used to determine whether there existed a significant difference in the oral health status. The confidence interval was set at 95% and alpha error was assumed at 0.05.
Among the 742 sensory deficit children examined, 371 children are visually impaired and 371 are hearing impaired. Gingival bleeding and poor oral hygiene is diagnosed in more than 70% of the visually impaired children. The prevalence of trauma is estimated to be 8% in children, who are visually impaired. In the hearing impairment group, gingival bleeding because of inadequate oral hygiene is seen in 58% of the population examined. There is no statistically significant difference in the dental caries status between visually impaired and hearing impaired children (P > 0.05). There is also no statistically significant difference in the restorative treatment need and trauma status between visually impaired and hearing impaired children (P > 0.05).
The present study shows a high prevalence of gingival diseases and dental caries in the special health care group children. The study signifies a wide spread presence of unmet treatment needs among children in this study population.
口腔健康的疏忽加上获得充分口腔护理的障碍在感觉缺陷儿童中更为常见。在印度这样的发展中国家，关于这一人群的口腔健康状况和治疗需求的数据严重缺乏。本研究的目的是根据世界卫生组织（WHO）1997 年基本口腔健康调查方法标准评估感觉缺陷儿童的口腔健康状况和治疗需求。
采用 WHO 标准（基本口腔健康调查，1997 年）进行描述性横断面研究；记录和列表记录有关人口统计学概况、口腔卫生状况、感觉障碍程度的问卷数据。使用卡方检验确定口腔健康状况是否存在显著差异。置信区间设定为 95%，α误差假设为 0.05。
在所检查的 742 名感觉缺陷儿童中，371 名儿童视力受损，371 名儿童听力受损。超过 70%的视力受损儿童出现牙龈出血和口腔卫生不良的情况。估计视力受损儿童的创伤患病率为 8%。在听力障碍组中，58%的受检人群由于口腔卫生不足导致牙龈出血。视力受损和听力受损儿童的龋齿状况无统计学差异（P>0.05）。视力受损和听力受损儿童的修复治疗需求和创伤状况也无统计学差异（P>0.05）。
本研究表明，特殊保健组儿童中牙龈疾病和龋齿的患病率较高。该研究表明，在研究人群中，儿童存在广泛的未满足的治疗需求。
