No abstract

Oral health care can be a difficult experience for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), for their family and for the dentist. The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of the challenges experienced by the three aforementioned figures during oral care treatment. A cohort of 275 parents of typical development children (TD), 57 parents of children with ASD (3–15 years old) and by 61 dentists, completed two different multiple choices questionnaires. The data obtained show a great difficulty in the treatment of children with ASD as seen by the dentists and by the parents. This is due to: caregivers’ demographic issues; difficulties encountered before and during the dental examination; scarce presence of experts in ASD treatment.

Background: Lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic brought deep changes to the daily lives of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), greatly increasing their amount of time spent at home. Methods: A cohort of 243 parents of children with ASD (2-15 years old) completed an original online survey regarding the child’s screen time and the modification of the ASD symptomatology during lockdown to investigate the relationship between them. Results: The data show that high solitary screen time is related with the worsening of ASD core symptoms. Conclusions: This study may help to increase awareness in the excessive use of screen in children with ASD during the lockdown, both during the pandemic as well as after it ends.