title: Dental status as a quality control health care parameter for children with disabilities.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the level of dental health condition in children with disabilities and to find out weather dental health status might be used as a quality control parameter regarding overall health care for disabled children. Disabled and healthy children from 3 to 17 years old were examined. There were 86 boys and 34 girls in each group. Dental health status was evaluated using the World Health Organization diagnostic criteria for decayed, missing and filled teeth. The relations between mean decayed, missing and filled teeth index for primary, mixed and permanent dentition showed no statistically significant differences among groups. Our results showed that disabled children have evenly level of dental caries as their healthy peers. One can conclude that organized health care for disabled children have positive influence on dental care, too. Furthermore, dental status as an indicator of dental care level might be used as a parameter for quality control regarding overall health care for disabled children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Dentistry, Dental School, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia. danko.bakarcic@ri.htnet.hr
authors.forename: Danko
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bakarcić
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Prpić
authors.forename: Natasa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ivancić-Jokić
authors.forename: Iva
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bilić
authors.forename: Vlatka
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lajnert
authors.forename: Dino
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Buković
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004245:DMF Index; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D019140:Dental Care for Children; D003730:Dental Care for Persons with Disabilities; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011786:Quality Control