Children with Disabilities at Risk of Poor Oral Health in the Republic of Lithuania: A Retrospective Descriptive Service Evaluation

Abstract

This retrospective service evaluation considers the oral health of children with disabilities in post‐Soviet Lithuania. It identifies that they have extensive dental decay and that the predominant course of dental treatment for children with disabilities is tooth extraction under general anesthetic. There is little in the way of specialist service provision, preventative care, or oral health promotion for this group. This study adds to the literature by identifying and emphasizing the impact on oral health of the sweeping economic and political changes, the move toward deinstitutionalization, and new economic trends such as a market economy. In particular, the lack of social welfare support, high levels of child poverty, poor educational outcomes, and the privatization of the oral health‐care system has served to increase oral health inequity for marginalized groups. The outcome is an increase in oral health inequalities for children with disabilities and an urgent need for policy and reform.

Appreciation Family Support and The Abilities of Children with Special Needs to Maintain Personal Hygiene: An Indonesian Case Study

“… 8 From a retrospective method, the dental health of children with special needs in Lithuania is very poor, where 72% of the children had five damaged teeth, and as many as 27% of the children had 10 damaged teeth. 9 In another study, 60 children with disabilities in Spain, 19 (31.7%) stated that they brush their teeth twice a day, 18 (30%) brush their teeth three times a day, and 10 (16.7%) brush their teeth sometimes. 10 Meanwhile, the majority of autistic children experience incompetence in self-care, eating, and dressing.…”

Prevalencia de gingivitis inducida por biofilm dental en escolares con discapacidad intelectual de la “Unidad Educativa Especial del Azuay” y de la “Escuela de Educación Básica Fiscomisional San José de Calasanz” en la ciudad de Cuenca - Ecuador

“…Varios estudios han demostrado que las personas con discapacidad intelectual manifiestan una higiene bucal deficiente, niveles más altos de biopelícula y una mayor prevalencia de enfermedad periodontal, situación que quizás pueda asociarse a que en ocasiones no cuentan con el apoyo familiar o de cuidadores para mejorar su salud bucal e implementar tratamientos Research, Society and Development, v. 11, n. 9, e57511932272, 2022 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v11i9.32272 4 preventivos y de rehabilitación. (Mazecaite-Vaitilaviciene & Owens, 2018;Vermaire et al, 2021;Hughes & Gazmararian, 2015;Marks et al, 2018) Adicionalmente los hallazgos científicos brindan un fuerte apoyo a la susceptibilidad genética, tomando como primera línea de evidencia estudios de pacientes con síndrome de Down que, a pesar de no tener diferencias estadísticamente significativas en acumulación de biopelícula, presentan rangos de inflamación gingival más extensas y en instancias tempranas en comparación con los controles genéticamente sanos de la misma edad y género. (Trombelli et al, 2018) El propósito de esta investigación es identificar la prevalencia de gingivitis inducida por biofilm dental en escolares con discapacidad intelectual de la Unidad Educativa Especial del Azuay y de la Escuela de Educación Básica Fiscomisional San José de Calasanz en la ciudad de Cuenca -Ecuador durante el período marzo 2018 -marzo 2019.…”