Oral Health Status Among Hearing and Speech Impaired Children of Karachi, Pakistan

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate dental status of children with hearing and speech impairment of Karachi Pakistan.

METHODOLOGY: This cross sectional study was conducted in Karachi, Pakistan for a period of 6 month among 106 children with hearing and speech impairment aged 5-15 years of either gender attending Deaf Reach School. After taking informed consent the subjects were examined for oral health status. Dental caries was assessed by using DMFT index and Oral hygiene status was assessed by using oral hygiene index simplified (OHIS). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 23.

RESULTS: The overall caries prevalence in the study population was 51% with an overall mean DMFT score of 2.08 (±2.97). Out of 106 hearing and speech impaired children, majority had good hygiene status (48.1%), 46.2% had fair hygiene status and only 5.7% had poor hygiene status with overall mean OHI-S score of 1.45±1.01.

CONCLUSION: A high prevalence of dental caries was observed among hearing and speech impaired children.

KEYWORDS: Dental caries, DMFT, Oral health, Oral hygiene status, deaf, hearing and speech impaired children.

HOW TO CITE: Azfar M, Khan I, Qureshi S, Zia N, Abid K. Oral health status among hearing and speech impaired children of Karachi, Pakistan. J Pak Dent Assoc 2018;27(4):181-85.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25301/JPDA.274.181

Received: 08 May 2018, Accepted: 14 June 2018

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