Outreach dental care service to Hong Kong adults with visual impairment

Abstract

There is currently very limited dental service that specifically caters for the visually impaired adults in Hong Kong and little is known about their oral health status and utilization of dental services. The main objectives of this project were to provide preventive and basic curative dental care service to the visually impaired adults in Hong Kong in a community setting, to describe the oral health status of the participants, and to describe their use of dental services and barriers they encountered. Participants of this project were recruited from two non-governmental organizations which serve the visually impaired adults in Hong Kong. Information about the participants was collected through interview and by conducting a clinical examination. Appropriate dental care services were provided to the participants according to their needs and within limitations through the use of portable dental equipment and hand instruments. A total of 66 visually impaired adults, age 24-95 years, participated in this project. Twothirds (68%) of them did not have regular dental checkup while 74% of them had encountered barriers when accessing dental care. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of them had untreated decayed teeth and a quarter (26%) had deep periodontal pockets. One-on-one oral hygiene instructions were provided to all participants. In addition, 52 participants received full-mouth scaling and 13 received ART restorations. Topical fluoride was applied on to the teeth of 44 participants. It is concluded that providing dental outreach service for the visually impaired adults under the Hong Kong setting is not difficult. This approach is practical and welcomed by the service users. The oral health status of the participants in this project was poor and they encountered special barriers in accessing conventional dental services.