RESUMO
Objective: this study was designed to determine the oral hygiene status and brushing habits of individuals with special needs having sensory and physical disabilities in Lahore, and compare the results with an age- and gender-matched healthy control group
Materials and methods: a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted and a convenience sample of 300 individuals including 200 individuals with special needs having sensory and physical disabilities and 100 healthy control individuals with mean age of 11.49 +/- 2.961 years [age range: 6-17 years] was selected for the study. The oral hygiene status was determined utilizing the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index. Information regarding the brushing habits was obtained through an especially designed questionnaire. Study groups were selected from three special education institutions and one school for normal individuals from Lahore. All the subjects belonged to the low socioeconomic group
Results: the mean OHI [S] score for the complete sample was 2.0780 +/- 1.46470. Mean OHI [S] values for control individuals were significantly lower than that for individuals with sensory and physical disabilities. When the OHI [S] scores of individuals were analyzed based on the groups i.e. normal, sensory disabled and physically disabled, the difference was statistically significant [p <0.05]. Physically disabled persons were having significantly higher mean OHI [S] values than the sensory disabled group. Among individual classes of people with sensory disabilities, blind, individuals with uncontrolled reflexes and cerebral palsy were having the highest mean OHI [S] values. Data regarding the brushing practices suggested that normal individuals were more regular in brushing teeth as compared to individuals with sensory and physical disabilities. The difference was statistically significant [p < 0.05]. No significant age and sex differences were found in the oral hygiene and brushing practices of normal and special needs categories
Conclusions: oral hygiene status of special needs group was significantly poorer than that of control group. Among the individual classes of special needs group, blind individuals in the sensory disabled and individuals uncontrolled reflexes were having the worst oral hygiene status. The individuals with special needs were having more irregular brushing habits as compared to the control group