A review of controlled surveys of dental disease in handicapped persons.

The need is demonstrated for large scale, definitive, standardized epidemiologic investigations of dental disease in those handicapped groups for whom this information is unavailable. Treatment needs of all groups should also be assessed, because this is not readily deduced from the indices of dental disease reviewed in this article. While a preventive orientation in dental care for the handicapped is most desirable, it must be emphasized that priorities in prevention and treatment should focus as much on periodontal disease as on caries, and due consideration must also be given to malocclusion. Current methods of preventing periodontal disease in the handicapped are quite inadequate.