The views and attitudes of parents of children with a sensory impairment towards orthodontic care.
A questionnaire was sent to the parents of 77 visually impaired (VI), 210 hearing impaired (HI) and 494 control children seeking their views on their child's dental appearance, orthodontic treatment need and issues that might influence the child undertaking treatment. The parents' views were compared with a dentist's assessment of treatment need using the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN). There was disagreement between the dentist's assessment and the parents' perceptions in all groups. However, the least disagreement was seen in the HI group. There was a statistically significant (P < 0.05) association between control and HI parents' views of their children's treatment needs and their opinion on their dental appearance. Most parents thought that orthodontic treatment was difficult to obtain and expensive and that their child would find difficulty coping with the treatment. Furthermore, parents of VI children considered that treatment was unlikely to be undertaken due to their child's reduced concern for their appearance. The study indicates that the awareness of treatment need for VI and HI children differs between their parents and dentists.
Department of Transcultural Oral Health, Eastman Dental Institute for Oral Health Care Sciences, University College London, UK.
Maha
M
Al-Sarheed
Raman
R
Bedi
Nigel P
NP
Hunt
D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D004955:Esthetics, Dental; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology; D020380:Needs Assessment; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009971:Orthodontics, Corrective / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities