Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2025
Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Autistic individuals have worse oral status than neurotypical controls: a systematic review and meta-analysis of
Jaíne C Uliana1, Catiusse C Del' Agnese1, Raquel P Antoniazzi1
1Oral Science, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil.
Objective:
To compare dental caries, oral hygiene, periodontal status, bruxism, malocclusion, tooth loss, and salivary alterations between autistic and typical developing individuals.
Material And Methods:
Observational studies presenting clinical measures of oral outcomes between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) individuals and controls. EMBASE, LILACS, PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ProQuest were searched up to June 26, 2023. Pairs of reviewers independently conducted study selection, data extraction, and assessments of methodological quality and certainty of evidence. Meta-analyses of standardized mean differences (SMD) and risk ratio (RR) were performed.
Results:
A total of 47 studies comprising 6885 autistic individuals were included in the review. Autistic individuals had significantly higher severity of dental-caries experience in primary teeth (SMD 0.29, 95%CI 0.02, 0.56), of dental plaque presence (SMD 0.59, 95%CI 0.24, 0.94), and of gingivitis (SMD 0.45, 95%CI 0.02, 0.88). Autistic individuals showed higher probability of occurrence of gingivitis (RR 1.34, 95%CI 1.08, 1.66,), bruxism (RR 4.23, 95%CI 2.32, 7.74), overjet (RR 2.16, 95%CI 1.28, 3.64), overbite (RR 1.62, 95%CI 1.02, 2.59), crossbite (RR 1.48, 95%CI 1.02, 2.13), and openbite (RR 2.37, 95%CI 1.46, 3.85), when compared to neurotypical individuals. Most estimates showed a small effect size with very low certainty of evidence.
Conclusion:
Autistic individuals show worse oral health status than controls.
Clinical Relevance:
The findings reported herein can help to build health policies to better serve autistic individuals including prevention actions and access to specialized dental care.
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