Caries prevalence and treatment needs of healthy and medically compromised children at a tertiary care institution in Saudi Arabia.
We examined the caries prevalence and treatment needs of medically compromised and healthy paediatric patients attending the dental clinic of a tertiary care institution in Saudi Arabia. The medical records of 175 healthy and 211 medically compromised 5-year-old Saudi children were reviewed. Data was extracted on clinical status and number of decayed, extracted and filled teeth (deft score). A total of 91.9% of medically compromised and 84.0% of healthy children had evidence of caries. Mean deft score was 9.91 for medically compromised and 6.25 for healthy children. A high proportion of carious teeth (79%) were untreated, with no significant difference between the 2 groups.
Brown
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King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. alisonbrown40@hotmail.com
D002648:Child; D004245:DMF Index; D019140:Dental Care for Children; D003730:Dental Care for Persons with Disabilities; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D003740:Dental Clinics; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D003906:Developing Countries; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000458:organization & administration*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology