Assessment of Oral Hygiene and Oral Health Status of 4-12 Year Old Children with Hearing Impairment

Introduction: Special mental and physical impairments including hearing impairment have important effects on oral health. The aim of this study was to assess the oral health and hygiene status of 4-12 year old hearing impaired children in the city of Isfahan. Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all of the hearing impaired 4-12 year old children in the city of Isfahan were examined. Information about oral health hygiene, dental caries status, gingival index (GI), oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-s) and trauma status were recorded in data report forms. Descriptive and analytical statistics including ANOVA, t-test, chi square and Mann-Whitney tests were used. Linear regression analysis was also conducted. Results: A total of 137 children aged 4-12 year (55.5 boys and 44.5 girls) were examined. The dmft and the total DMFT means were 3.4±4.1 and 3.8±4.4, respectively. There was a significant difference between the two age groups regarding dmft (P-value=0.001). Oral hygiene status was good in 57.7 of the cases regarding OHI-S. Only 10of children had normal gingival hygiene according to GI index with significant difference between the two age groups (P=0.012). Among the children, 53.3 reported to use toothbrush every day. Regression analysis revealed that the age of children (B-coefficient= -0.5, P=0.04), their level of impairment (B-coefficient=3.4, P<0.001) and the OHI-S (B-coefficient=1.2, P=0.03) were significantly in correlation with DMFT. Conclusions: Dental caries status in children in our study was above the state and province norms in the age group of 4-12 years. A low percent of children had good gingival health while their oral hygiene behavior was mostly inadequate. Therefore, a need to improve oral hygiene of such children and more attention towards preventive and therapeutical measures are anticipated.