Dental disease and current treatment needs in a group of physically handicapped children

One hundred and twenty-nine physically handicapped children (89 males, 40 females) were dentally examined in a local authority residential special school taking pupils from a wide geographical area in the Northern Region, for caries, periodontal disease, malocclusions and treatment need using World Health Organization criteria. The children were aged between 3 and 17 years with a mean age of 10.7 years. Mean deciduous caries experience (dft) was 0.9 and the mean permanent caries experience (DMFT) was 2.0. The mean dfs/DMFS values were 2.5 and 3.4 respectively. A higher experience of deciduous caries was found in girls, dft = 1.3, than in boys who had a mean dft value of 0.8 and in the permanent dentition girls had a mean DMFT value of 2.8 compared with 1.6 for boys. Each component of the index was also higher for girls in both dentitions. The gender difference identified in caries experience extended to treatment need for the permanent dentition, where more girls were recorded as requiring treatment than boys. Of the 129 children, 126 were assessed for treatment co-operation. Only 18 (14.3 per cent) were assessed as being amenable to routine dental care, 66 (52.4 per cent) were thought likely to present some management problems and the remaining 42 (33.3 per cent) were thought to require all their treatment under a general anaesthetic.