ORIGINAL: Oral Health Status and Treatment Needs of Individuals Attending a Special Education Center in South South Nigeria
West Afr J Med . 2022 Dec 29;39(12):1260-1265.
Keywords:
Dental caries; Oral health; Oral hygiene; Special care needs; Special education.Abstract
Abstract in English, FrenchBackground: Dental care has been the most commonly reported unmet service need among individuals with special health care needs.
Objectives: To assess the oral health status and treatment needs of individuals with special health care needs in a selected special education centre in South South Nigeria.
Methods: A cross sectional, descriptive study conducted among students of Special Education Centre in Calabar. Sociodemographic data was collected while oral health conditions and treatment needs of the participants were assessed through oral examination. Data entry and analysis was by IBM SPSS version 21 and statistical significance was set at p<0.05.
Results: Eighty-one participants were recruited for this study. More than half of the participants were males (56.8%) and had hearing impairments alone (56%). The most common oral condition was dental caries (40.7%) with a mean DMFT/dmft of 0.4 (±1.0). Majority of the participants had fair oral hygiene and the mean OHIS was 2.4(±1.3). Male participants and participants within the 21-30 years age group had poorer oral hygiene than their female counterparts and other age groups respectively. The preventive and restorative treatment needs were 56% and 18.5% respectively.
Conclusion: Dental caries was the most prevalent oral health condition among this population with high unmet preventive and restorative treatment needs.
Keywords: Dental caries; Oral health; Oral hygiene; Special care needs; Special education.
