Abstract

Background: Oral health is an important predictor of general health, happiness, and quality of life. According to reports, one of the most common unmet demands of the population with special health care needs is dental care. In many cases, another individual will be in charge of these children's dental hygiene, such as a parent, guardian, or caretaker. Aim and Objectives: Was to assess the oral health status of differently abled children attending various special schools in Vishakhapatnam city, Andhra Pradesh. Material and Methods: Data was collected using face to face interview and WHO oral health assessment form and a total of 20 schools were selected based on multistage random sampling technique and the sample obtained was 400 comprising of b Government, primary and NGO running schools. The data collected was entered in Microsoft Excel Sheet by the examiner. The entered data were exported to SPSS (Statistical package for social science) for statistical analysis. Statistical tests were done using SPSS 22.0. The level of significance was set at p< 0.05. Results: Oral health conditions like dental caries (82%), bleeding (28.2%), dental trauma (14.5%) and dental fluorosis (12.2%) was observed in all regardless of the disability. This could be due to lack of proper caring of the oral health and most of the schools were institutionalized leading to low utilization of dental services. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of oral diseases is more in these children and steps are to be taken to address the disparities in oral health and hygiene among disabled children, as well as the barriers to oral care, which include cost, fear, and social attitudes. It is utmost necessary to educate parents, caregivers about the importance of diet and oral care.

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