Pediatric dentists can determine chewing performance level in children

The current study was aimed to verify whether pediatric dentists could determine chewing performance level in children by using Karaduman Chewing Performance Scale (KCPS).

Typical developing children and children with cerebral palsy (CP) who were referred to pediatric dentistry above the age of 2 years were included in the study. The chewing performance level was scored according to KCPS. One experienced physical therapist and three pediatric dentists independently assessed the chewing videos of the children and scored each child's chewing function. The correlation between the KCPS scores of the physical therapist and the pediatric dentists was used for reliability. The agreement between the scorings of the physical therapist and pediatric dentists was assessed using Fleiss kappa statistics.

Fifty-four typical developing children and 43 children with CP were included. A strong positive correlation between the KCPS scoring of the physical therapist and pediatric dentists was found (r=0.911-0.939, p<0.001). An excellent agreement in the KCPS scoring between the physical therapist and the 1st and 3rd dentists (p<0.001, κ 0.754-0.763), and a good agreement in the KCPS scoring between the physical therapist and the 2nd dentist was detected (p<0.001, κ 0.687).

The study results show that the KCPS is reliable for pediatric dentists in determining the chewing performance level in children. Therefore, it could be suggested that pediatric dentists could use the KCPS in their clinical settings and research studies.

The study may have clinical implications in the evaluation of children with chewing difficulty in dental practice.

NCT04407455.