The Relationship between Dental Caries and Life Style in Disabled Preschool Children

Abstract

In recent years, the occurrence of dental caries in children has tended to decrease. However, disabled children still show a higher rate of dental caries than other children. This is assumed to be attributable to a specific oral health problem of disabled children. In order to provide useful oral hygiene instruction for disabled children, examinations of the dental caries where conducted on 151 preschool disabled children who went to institutions in S ward in the Tokyo metropolitan area as well as having their parents respond to a questionnaire for 7 years, from 1999 to 2005.
The results are shown below: 1
1. While numerous disabled children were provided with between-meal snacks, at the set times drinks were freely provided. The method of providing between-meal snacks and drinking was highly related to dental caries.
2. While the contents of the between-meal snacks were less related to dental caries, the contents of the drinks were highly related to dental caries.
3. The relationship between teeth brushing habits and dental caries shows a low correlation, but not in terms of the person brushing the his/her teeth, the number of times or the duration of brushing.
As a result, the instruction concerning of mouth cleaning methods corresponding to the disabled is considered necessary as well as further instruction to parents concerning the provision of betweenmeal snacks and drinks.