Oral health of patients with intellectual disabilities

Medline, PubMed, Clinical Queries and PsychLIT.

The studies were evaluated independently by two reviewers and only included studies that had been published in English since 1975. The studies included had to meet three criteria; adult humans with mental retardation or a similar ID, had at least one quantitative measure of oral health status and the study compared the subjects to a control or comparison group without ID. Studies were assessed on the strength of evidence in three domains: quality, quantity and consistency.

Owing to the heterogeneity of the data, meta-analyses were not attempted. The results were descriptive with no odds ratios or confidence intervals mentioned and gave an overview of oral health and ID.

27 studies were included in the review. Studies were of variable quality with many being of a small sample size. People with ID were found to have poor oral hygiene and higher prevalence and greater severity of periodontal disease. Caries rates in people with ID are the same as or lower than the general population. The rates of untreated caries are consistently higher in people with ID.

This review supports the need to develop strategies to increase patient acceptance for routine care, for additional training for dentists to provide care and for the development of more effective preventive strategies to minimise the need for this care.