Dental Treatment for Persons with Disabilities at Pediatric Medical Center

Abstract

We investigated dental treatments given to persons with disabilities at a pediatric medical center in Japan between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016. Factors noted were age at first visit and most re cent visit during the study, type of disability, intervals between office visits, and contents of the dental treatment provided. The main results obtained were as follows :

1.A total of 449 patients (males 271, females 178) who visited the medical center were enrolled.

2.The age range at first visit was 0-24 years. The most common age was 1 year old and children 0-5 years old accounted for 78.2% of the total. The mean age was 16.4±8.3 years (range 0-59 years).

3.A duration of ＜5 years from first visit to most recent visit was most frequent and accounted for 23.8% of the total. A duration of 10-15 years was seen in 20.9% and of 5-10 years in 19.8% of the examined cases.

4.The most common patient disabilities were cerebral palsy (28.1% of total), pervasive developmental disorder (20.9%), intellectual disability (10.9%), Down syndrome (9.8%), neurological disorders other than cerebral palsy and epilepsy (9.6%), and epilepsy (8.0%).

5.There was a total of 17,033 consultations for all patients and 20,934 dental treatments were performed. The most common dental treatments given were fissure sealant (33.7% of total), scaling (29.8%), and cavity filling (33.7%).

6.There were significant differences in the ratios of dental treatments among those with different disabilities. However, the most common dental treatments performed regardless of disability were fis sure sealant, scaling, and cavity filling.

7.Among the various treatments, there were significant differences noted when the patients were divided by age.