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Updated: Jul 28, 2025

Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Oral health characteristics in children and adolescents with Down syndrome
Flávia Almeida Ribeiro Scalioni1, Camila Faria Carrada2, Maisa Costa Tavares3
1Department of Social and Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Aim:
To compare oral health indicators of children/adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) with a group of children/adolescents without DS.
Methods And Results:
This cross-sectional study included 144 individuals with DS, ages 4 to 18 years, matched for age and sex with a group of 144 individuals without DS, and their parents/caregivers. Parents/caregivers completed a questionnaire regarding sociodemographic information and habits related to their children's oral health. Clinical examination of the children/adolescents evaluated dental caries experience (DMFT/dmft), bleeding on periodontal probing, presence of visible plaque, clinical consequences of untreated dental caries (PUFA/pufa), and malocclusion (DAI). The chi-square test, linear by linear test, and Mann-Whitney test were used to compare the variables between the groups (p < .05). Children/adolescents without DS brushed their teeth more times per day (p < .001) and had a higher frequency of daily sugar intake (p < .001). The children/adolescents in the DS group had a greater presence of gingival bleeding (p < .001) and had a greater number of cases of "severe malocclusion" and "very severe malocclusion" (p = .001). No difference was found in the prevalence of dental caries between the two groups.
Conclusion:
The children/adolescents in the DS group had a greater presence of gingival bleeding during the clinical examination and had a greater need for orthodontic treatment.
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