Parental Perception of Oral Health Status for Sudanese Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder in Khartoum State

 

Ensaf H. AbdAlgabbar¹ and Amal H. Abuaffan^2*

 

Research Paper I Published February,2015

 

Journal of Medical and Biological Science Research Vol. 1 (1), pp. 4-9
 

¹Pedodontist, Ministry of Health, Khartoum Teaching Dental Hospital, Khartoum Sudan.

²Department of Orthodontic, Pedodontic and Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Khartoum University, Sudan.

*Corresponding author E-mail: amalabuaffan@yahoo.com

Autistic spectrum disorder is long life neuro-developmental disorder. Providing proper and efficient oral health care to children with autism is considered challenging for both parents and dental care providers.To assess parental perception of oral health for their children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder in Khartoum state. This is a descriptive cross sectional study including 45 autistic children (mean age 8.2 years) attending 8 autistic centres in Khartoum state. Data regarding the perception of the parents were collected by a self-administered questionnaires and the caries status for autistic children was assessed by (DMFT/dmft). Most of the parents thought that their children either had good or fair oral health, and it is statistically significant with parent's education level (p value=0.03) and child’s history of visiting dental clinic (P-value=0.01). The mean DMFT/SiC (0.83/1.9) and dmft /SiC (2.40/6.1). Autistic children parent do not ever take their children to dental clinics thought that their oral health is either Good or Fair.

Key words: Parents, Autism, Sudanese, Dental Clinic, Oral Health.

 

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