Dental caries in disabled children.

The aim of the study was to evaluate oral health conditions and dental caries status in disabled and healthy children. Two groups of randomly selected children 3-17 years old were examined. The first group comprised 80 children with disabilities (cerebral palsy, mental retardation, Down syndrome, autism and hearing-speaking disorders) and the second (control) group included 80 healthy children. Examined children were selected from several institutions which take care of disabled persons, kindergardens and four elementary schools. Clinical examination was performed by using a mirror and a probe and revealed the presence of dental caries, missing (extracted) and filled teeth. All clinically detected cavitations were registered as dental caries. The degree of oral hygiene was evaluated according to the OHI-S index values, which was determined by marking the plaque with 1% eozine solution. The values of OHI-S index ranged from 3.8-4.53 in disabled children and 2.73-2.84 in healthy children. In disabled children, the average dft values were 3.42 in deciduous teeth and 5.24 in mixed dentition. In healthy children, the average dft values were 1.43 in deciduous teeth and 5.1 in mixed dentition. The average DMFT index in disabled children was 1.41 for mixed and 6.39 for permanent dentitions. In healthy children, the average DMFT values were 1.23 in mixed and 4.76 in permanent dentitions. In general, the results revealed significantly poor level of oral hygiene and quite high level of caries prevalence in both disabled and healthy children, accentuating the need to reorganize preventive care measurements and improve dental care, particularly in disabled children in Croatia.