Oral health status and treatment needs of hearing impaired children attending a special school in Bhimavaram, India

Background: Children with hearing impairment (CHI) have special accessibility issues to meet their health care needs. Their oral health status is deprived and has wide ranging treatment needs to attend. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the oral health status and treatment needs of CHI attending a special school in Bhimavaram Town, India. Study Design: The study design was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in November 2012 at SVS special school for deaf, Bhimavaram, India. This study involved 180 CHI of both genders, aged 6-16 years, divided into Group-I (6-8 years), Group-II (9-12 years), and Group-III (13-16 years). Oral health status and treatment needs were recorded using methods and standards recommended by the WHO for Oral Health Surveys, 1997. Dental caries prevalence (decayed, missing, and filled teeth [DMFT/dmft]), gingivitis levels (Lφe, Silness Gingival Index), plaque levels (Silness, Lφe Plaque index), and treatment needs were the parameters recorded and analyzed. Statistical Analysis: Z-test for proportion, one-way analysis of variance, and Chi-square test were used to analyze the data. Results: Prevalence of dental caries in the sample was found to be 65% with a mean level of caries prevalence (DMFT) of 1.6 ± 1.3 in Group-I, 1.9 ± 1.2 in Group-II, and 2.2 ± 1.2 in Group-III. About 91.7% of the total children examined needs treatment. The mean plaque and gingivitis scores of the sample were 1.70 ± 0.61 and 1.59 ± 0.58, respectively. Conclusion: These findings imply the overwhelming situation of CHI in oral health perspective. Hence, prevention-based educational and motivational programs should be targeted to this vital group to achieve adequate oral hygiene levels.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-SA

18 more references, whose wording the paper’s licence keeps private.

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.