1987 Volume 25 Issue 1 Pages 199-211
We conducted a survey to investigate the actual state of the dental treatment needs of the handicapped subjects by distributing questionnaires to nurseries for pre-schooling age children, special schools for the handicapped, welfare associations and vocational training institutions for post-schooling age persons.
The results of the survey were as follows:
1) Regular dental examinations were performed in 78% of the nursery schools,93% of the special schools and 45% of the post-schooling educational institutions. Parents were informed of the results of the examination and given advice for treatment by all institutions except those for the post-schooling age persons.
2) School dentists or contract dentists were present in 65% of the nursery schools,96% of the special schools and 23% of the post-schooling educational institutions. About 60 to 70% of all the dentists carried out preventive work and about 50% of them were positive in treatment.
2) As for institutions receiving dental treatment, the nursery schools relied mostly on dental specialists for the management of the handicapped patients while other institutions preferred general practitioners.74% of the nursery schools,71% of the special schools and 73% of the post-schooling education al institutions received dental treatment from voluntary medical and/or general dental practitioners.
4) The number of decayed teeth was low in nursery schools while the number ranged from 5 to 10 in about half of the special schools and the post-schooling educational institutions. The frequency of dental visits was high among children from nursery schools but generally low for those coming from other institutions.
5) Tooth brushing after lunch and tooth brushing instruction were done in about 70-80% of all the institutions. The state of oral hygiene was rather good for the nursery school children but poor for more than half of the handicapped subjects from other institutions, especially those who had mental retardation.
