| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 14
| Issue : 1 | Page : 29-34 |
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Access to dental care among differently-abled children in Kochi
Bindu V Bhaskar1, Chandrashekar Janakiram2, Joe Joseph2
1 Department of Public Health Dentistry, K. S. R. Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Tiruchengode, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Public Health Dentistry, Amrita School of Dentistry, AIMS, Kochi, Kerala, India
Correspondence Address:
Bindu V Bhaskar
Department of Public Health Dentistry, K. S. R. Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, K. S. R. Kalvi Nagar, Kuchipalayam (P. O.), Tiruchengode, Namakkal - 637 215, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/2319-5932.178723
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Introduction: Differently-abled children face unique challenges to receive routine dental care. Aim: To assess the barriers to dental care in differently-abled children and also to assess their oral hygiene status and caries experience. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to collect information from 331 differently-abled children aged 6–14 years attending four special schools and 21 integrated schools in Kochi. The children were grouped into intellectually impaired (II), visually impaired, hearing impaired, and orthopedically handicapped. The information regarding access to care was collected from the parents/caretakers using a pretested structured questionnaire. A special recording form was used to collect clinical data on Dentition status and Oral Hygiene Index Simplified. The data was cleaned, coded, and analyzed for descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS software version 22. Results: The significant barrier to dental care was financial difficulty (68.6%); more among II (39%). The mean decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) value was found to be higher among the children with orthopedically handicapped (1.62 ± 2.7) than others. A higher mean dmft value was found among the II (2.81 ± 3.4) than others. Oral hygiene status of most of the differently-abled children was found to be good. Conclusion: Limited access to dental care among differently-abled children was found out. |
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