The Impact of Cerebral Palsy on The Health, Functions, and Habits of The Oral Cavity Among Children in Sulaimani City

Abstract

Objective: Identify the impact of Cerebral Palsy (CP) on oral health, function, and habits.
 Methods: A thorough examination of the oral mucosa in one hundred CP children was carried out after obtaining detailed medical and dental histories. ANOVA and Chi-square tests were used to analyze the data, and p-value ≤ 0.05 considered significant. 
 Results: CP children predominated by males (58%) and spastic type (64%). 27% of them visited a dentist (44.5% pain), 45% performed tooth brushing (57.8% need help), 31.8% mixed CP type only eat liquid diet. CP children had a burning tongue (11%) and halitosis (32%). Dry mouth and cracked lips were the minor symptoms. Functional limitations in chewing (34%), speech (59%), swallowing (37%) were also recorded. The majority of CP children had several oral disorders and habits including: saliva drooling (59%), mouth breathing (45%), thumb sucking (32%) and teeth bruxism (31%). Lip and tongue sucking was significantly more in ataxic type (p = 0.04). Changes in the tongue mucosa were the predominant findings (24%). 
 Conclusions: The majority of CP children did not perform brushing, and few of them visited the dentist. The tongue mucosa was the most affected site. CP patients had multiple oral habits and orofacial functional difficulties predominated by drooling and mouth breathing.