Oral health status of Chinese with Down syndrome - a pilot study

Abstract

Down syndrome (DS) is one of the most common clinically recognizable categories of mental subnormality. However, studies on Chinese with DS are very limited. The purpose of this study was to conduct an oral health survey on Chinese with DS in Hong Kong. Eight-five out of 380 members of the Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association participated in this survey. The participants were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 was 18 participants aged below 6 with primary teeth. Group 2 was 22 participants aged 8 to 12 with mixed dentition. Group 3 was 45 participants aged 13 to 34 with permanent teeth. The dmft and DMFT caries index was used to measure the caries experience and the Community Periodontal Index. CPI, was used to assess the periodontal condition. Twenty-five participants (29%) had congenital heart disease. Overall there was 59% of participants had no caries experience. The mean dmft and DMFT were 0.8±1.5 and 2.3±4.0. Twenty-six participants aged above 16 with no heart disease were examined for periodontal health. The percentage distribution of CPI score of 0 to 4 were 0%, 4%, 11%, 77% and 8%. To represent the results in terms of treatment needs, all of them require oral hygiene instruction. On top of it, 96% requires scaling as well. During the examination, some special oral features and dental anomalies of the participants were observed; macroglossia was seen in 29% of the participants, 12% of the participants had fissured tongue, 69% of the participants were found to have a deep palatal vault. 35% of the participants have an open mouth posture, 21% participants had peg-shaped lateral incisors and 27% of the subjects had missing lateral incisors. In summary, caries experience was low and prevalence of periodontal disease was high in this group of Chinese with DS. Special oral features and dental anomnalies were also common in DS.