Abstract
The subjects were 95 handicapped children (51 boys and 44 girls), who visited Takamatsu Dental Emergency Center from 1980 to 1982 for dental care. Their ages ranged from 4 to 17 years.
The subjects were classified into 6 groups according to their disorder: the MR Only Group, the CP Group, the Down Group, the Autism Group, the Epilepsy Group and the Other Group.
Items such as the caries attack condition, the means of treatment of the caries, the mean number of times the children visited center, the mean number of recall, the means of treatment at recall time, and the answers to qestionnaires were investigated.
The results obtained were as follows:
1. The caries positive rate was 94.3%, which was not much different from the rate of ordinary children, and the df tooth rate was 28.5%, which was lower than that of ordinary children (36.9%).
2. At the center,25.3% of the caries teeth was treated with application of diammine silver fluoride solution, and 20.3% was treated with composite resin filling. There rates were higher than those of other means of treatment.
3. The mean number of times children visited center was 7.3 in the MR Only Group which was followed by the Autism Group,6.7. The number of times from the first visit to the attainment of acceptable of dental treatment was 2.1 in the MR Only Group which was the highest, and was 1.3in the Epilepsy Group the lowest. The mean number of recalls was 0.7. Most procedures at recall time included brushing instructions and fluoride application, but a few included restoration, endodontic treatment, etc.
4. The results of qestionnaires at the first visit were as follows. About 70% of children had suffered from tooth pain (20.0%), caries (17.9%), and other problems (35.8%). About 50% of the children had visited a dental office and half of them had been able to obtain treatment. The number of children who brushed their teeth was 72 (75.8%), had normal meals was 88 (92.6%), ate snacks between meals regularly was 55 (57.9%).12.6% of children had the oral habit of bruxism.
