Frequency of Color Vision Deficiency among Saudi Dental Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

The current research was conducted to evaluate the frequency of color-vision deficiency among dental students of King Khalid University College of Dentistry, Saudi Arabia.

A cross-sectional study was performed among 203 dental students working as interns at male and female dental clinics of King Khalid University College of Dentistry (KKUCOD), Saudi Arabia. The Ishihara color-vision deficiency (CVD) test with 24 plates was used for diagnosis of the problem. Analysis of the data was done by performing Chi-square tests using SPSS software version 20.

The frequency of total CVD was found to be 3.9%. While the association of gender with total CVD was observed to be statistically nonsignificant, a statistically significant relation was drawn with red-green color deficiency. Out of the total of 203 patients, 44 males were identified with red-green color deficiency, whereas only three females were found to have this condition, therefore revealing that CVD is more prevalent in males. Age was found to have a significant association with red-green color vision deficiency, protanopia, and total CVD.

A total of 20.19% male dental students had red-green color vision deficiency compared to 1.4% in female students. The dental students must be aware of their congenital color vision deficiency and its impact on their professional life. Screening of such dental students and professionals is quite important so that they can tackle the color vision problems well without having detrimental effect on their future dental practice.