title: Impact of verbal, Braille text, and tactile oral hygiene awareness instructions on oral health status of visually impaired children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Visually impaired children face limitations in interacting with the environment, as they cannot see the facial expression of parents, teachers and cannot perceive social behavior. These children are challenged every day in learning basic life skills and maintenance of oral hygiene being one among them.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the impact of verbal, braille text, and tactile oral hygiene awareness instructions on oral health status of visually impaired children.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and twenty institutionalized visually impaired children aged 6-16 years were selected and divided into three groups (40 children each). Group I: Verbal and tactile, Group II: Verbal and braille, Group III: Verbal, braille, and tactile. Instructions regarding maintenance of good oral hygiene and brushing technique were explained to all the children, and oral health status of these children using plaque index (Silness and Loe) and gingival index (Loe and Silness) was evaluated at 1, 3, and 6 months interval.
  
  
  METHODS
  ANOVA test was used to analyze the intra- and inter-group comparisons and Tukey post-hoc test for multiple group comparisons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children in all the groups showed reduction in plaque and gingival scores. There was the highest percentage of reduction in plaque scores in Group III (70.6%), and the decrease in gingival scores was the highest in Group II (84%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Severity of dental plaque and gingivitis in visually impaired individuals can be reduced by a controlled and supervised educational program. The combination of all three, i.e., verbal, braille, and tactile mode of oral health educational aids proved to be effective.
authors.forename: P Brahmanna
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Chowdary
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Vishnu Dental College, Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Uloopi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vinay
authors.forename: V Veerabhadra
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Chandrasekhar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rayala
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000379:methods*; D003730:Dental Care for Persons with Disabilities / Q000379:methods*; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003774:Dental Plaque Index; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D005891:Gingivitis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006267:Health Education, Dental / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D011932:Reading; D012682:Sensory Aids; D014099:Toothbrushing; D014110:Touch; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014786:Vision Disorders