Oral Health and Dental Management

Oral health initiative for special care school children in Alkharj, Saudi Arabia

International Conference and Exhibition on Dentistry

March 18-20, 2015 Dubai, UAE

Altaf H Shah

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Oral Health Dent Manag

Abstract:

Objectives: 1) To evaluate oral health needs of special care school children. 2) To evaluate risk for dental caries using the cariogram model. 3) To use supervised brushing during school hours to reduce the risk of oral disease. 4) To evaluate the effectiveness of this program. Material & Methods: Out of 936 special needs students in 18 schools that have programs to teach special care children, 6 primary schools were chosen randomly. 163 students aged 6-15 years and 56 teachers were enrolled. Participants were grouped according to their medical diagnosis. Oral health promotion was done according to the specific needs of the group as well as training of teachers. The participants were recorded for their oral hygiene behavior, Plaque scores and caries risk via the cariogram model in the beginning and at the end of the program. Supervised brushing program through teachers of special care children with a power brush was introduced in each school. Results: Among the groups, in the cariogram model, lesser chance to avoid future caries was seen more among the learning disability group. Among all groups the hearing impaired group was found to have the least plaque scores and better chance to avoid future caries. The program proved effective by improving the oral hygiene behavior and chances of preventing future caries. The supervised brushing needed to be reinforced with the schools. Conclusion: This program showed good result for the special needs school children. There is a high need for implementation of such program for this group.