Abstract
Background The oral health care of autistic children is elaborated; they often fail to define dental problems, and a family-centered approach can be useful to improve and intercept these disorders. Aim To assess the oral status of autistic children, comparing it with no autistic patients. Materials and Methods A retrospective study analyzed the oral health status of 70 children, 35 with autism and 35 without the disorder. Conditions assessed were dental trauma type, periodontal tissue injuries, soft tissue lip injuries, different treatments carried out, associated soft tissue findings and disorders, and the long-term management. All patients (≤15 years of age) were chosen consecutively. Results Females (57%) suffered more traumatic injuries than males (43%) in the autistic group, whereas males affected by dental trauma (54%) are predominant in the control group. The enamel fracture was the main finding among the dental trauma types in both groups followed by enamel/dentin/pulp fracture (31%), root fracture (11%), and avulsions (3%) in the autistic group and by avulsions (20%), root fracture (11%), and enamel/dentin/pulp fracture (6%) in the control group. The comparison of all variables of the two groups showed a statistically significant difference (P < 0.012). The lower lip was statistically more injured than the upper lip (P < 0.005). Conclusions The composite restorative technique was the most common approach carried out; the long-term evaluation, when possible, was predominantly managed through root canal therapy in the control group (81%), and root canal therapy (50%) and tooth extraction (50%) in the sample group.
Highlights
Autism or autistic disorder is a severe developmental disability that is characterized by an impairment in mutual social interactions, communication skills, and repetitive patterns of behaviors
Of the 70 initial patients, the sample group was constituted by 35 autistic children (15 males with a mean age of 11.2 and 20 females with a mean age of 12.6), whereas 35 patients without the autistic spectrum represented the control group (19 males with a mean age of 10.5 and 16 females with a mean age of 9)
We found an occurrence of 31% of enamel/dentin/pulp fracture, 11% of root fracture, and 3% of avulsions
Summary
Autism or autistic disorder is a severe developmental disability that is characterized by an impairment in mutual social interactions, communication skills, and repetitive patterns of behaviors. It is the third most frequent disorder after mental retardation and cerebral palsy and it was described by Kanner in 1943 for the first time [1]. Conditions assessed were dental trauma type, periodontal tissue injuries, soft tissue lip injuries, different treatments carried out, associated soft tissue findings and disorders, and the long-term management. The composite restorative technique was the most common approach carried out; the long-term evaluation, when possible, was predominantly managed through root canal therapy in the control group (81%), and root canal therapy (50%) and tooth extraction (50%) in the sample group
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