Evaluation of oral health status in a sample of autistic male children

Abstract EN

Background : autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder, presents in early childhood, characterized by severe impairments in socialization, communication and behavior.

Autism is considered a multi-factorial disorder that is influenced by genetic, environmental, and immunological factors with oxidative stress as a mechanism linking these factors.

Assessment of any oral manifestations has to be discovered, evaluated and measured in autistics to be used as a potential diagnostic.

Materials and methods : oral health status : (DMFT) for permanent teeth, (dmft)for deciduous teeth and gingival indices were estimated for 58 individuals aged (2-13) years, twenty nine of them were autistics and twenty nine were sex and age matched healthy controls.

Results : the results of this study showed that Iraqi autistic children sample was more likely to be caries-free compared with healthy sample.

Conclusion : children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were more likely to be caries-free, had lower DMFT \ dmft and GI scores than did their unaffected peer and can be used in autism spectrum disorder prediction to a limited extent.