Oral Health Status in Autism Patients Children in Iraq

Abstract

Background: The autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been introduced as one of the complicated developmental disabilities impairing communication and behavioral, intellectual as well as social functioning describes diverse symptoms, such as difficulties in communication skills and social interactions. The present research has been performed to assess seriousness of the dental caries in conjunction with the oral cleanliness amongst children suffering from autism in comparison with a control group according to age groups and gender. Materials and Methods: This research involved 30 children aged 3-14 years (male, female) who suffered from autism and attended autism centers in Welfare Children Teaching Hospital in Baghdad province, Iraq, were selected for the study compared to 30 healthy children with the same age group. Plaque (PlI), Decayed, missing, and filled surfaces (dmfs, DMFS), calculus (CI) as well as Gingival (GI) indices have been applied for measuring the status of oral health for these two groups. The data of our research has been analyzed by SPSS 26. Results: The entire autism group was caries active. For primary dentition, a lower dmfs values were recorded for study in comparison with the controls, differences have been not significant in dmfs, while for permanent dentition, a higher DMFS values were recorded for study in comparison with the control group with statistically significant concerning DMFS (P < 0.05). Moreover, caries experience (DS and DMFS) among both genders were higher in the study group in comparison with the controls with a significant difference in female only. Total mean value of PlI in the study group has been greater than the controls with no statistically significant difference. In addition, total mean value of GI in the study group has been lower than the controls with no statistically significant difference. Furthermore, correlation coefficient between the caries experience of primary and permanent teeth with PlI and GI among study and control group showed no significant correlations seen in the study and control groups, all of them were positively correlated except (ds) with (GI) in control group which was negatively correlated with no significant correlation. Conclusion: children with ASD had higher dental caries severity regarding permanent teeth compared to normal subjects, plaque higher in autistic group than control group. Dental care planners must design preventing strategies for avoiding caries; procedures for oral care as well as educational programs for oral care and promotion for addressing diverse challenges facing the oral care in ASD.