Measurement of missing, decay and filling of teeth among visually impaired individuals compared to normally sighted individuals in Suleimani city

Al Zahawi, Abdul Salam; Oumer, Rawa; Ali, Shokhan H.; Ahmed, Shawbo M.; Hamad, Aram M.

	Measurement of missing, decay and filling of teeth among visually impaired individuals compared to normally sighted individuals in Suleimani city
Sulaimani Dental Journal
Article 12, Volume 4, Special Issue, 2017, Pages 12-12 PDF (175.56 K)
Authors
Abdul Salam Al Zahawi; Rawa Oumer; Shokhan H. Ali; Shawbo M. Ahmed; Aram M. Hamad
Abstract
Objectives: The present study was conducted to assess caries prevalence through measuring missing, decay and filling of permanent teeth among visually impaired individuals in Sulaimani city in comparison with normally sighted individuals to determine whether this disability had an effect on dental health or not. Materials and methods: Forty visually-impaired volunteers were screened at the Basic Runaky Institute for the Visually Impaired, while at the same time the same number of normally sighted individuals had their dental health status checked by a group of dentists. The DMFT was measured for each volunteer; also the frequency of tooth brushing was recorded through asking questions about tooth brushing and dental care. Results: the prevalence of dental caries was lower in the study group than in the control group, and there was a highly significant difference in DMFT between the study and the control group. Similar results were found on comparing the filling components of the study group with those of the control group, while a non-significant difference in decay and missing components was identified on comparing the study group with the control group. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrate that visually impaired subjects have a low prevalence of dental caries, low DMFT score but lower rate of regular tooth brushing.

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