Prevalence of dental caries in handicapped children of Calcutta.

A total of 1042, 3-14-year-old children with different types of handicapping conditions when recorded for dental caries using WHO 1987 caries recording index revealed that dental caries experience was higher in handicapped children than normal children. The prevalence of dental caries was highest in mentally retarded children followed by cerebral palsied, blind, epileptic, physically handicapped, children with Down's syndrome and deaf and dumb. Higher deft+DMFT was recorded in mandibular teeth compared to maxillary teeth.