فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

CONTEXT: Vision is the most important sense for interpreting the world and when sight is impaired,especially in childhood it can have detrimental effects on one’s life. To maintain the oral health statusof such group requires special approach.AIM: The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of Braille text and verbal, oral hygiene instructionson the oral health status of visually impaired children.SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A prospective nonrandomized before and after comparison trial withoutany control group was conducted among 165 children aged 7–19 years residing in one of the blindschools in Delhi.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire was developed to record the source of oral healthknowledge and practices. Oral health status of the children was evaluated by recording plaqueindex (PI) and gingival index (GI) scores at 1, 3, and 5 months intervals. Periodic reinforcement oforal health education was performed with the help of instructions in Braille language.STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Paired t‑test and McNemar tests were used to assess the differencebetween the scores before and after oral health education.RESULTS: Among completely blind children, the mean difference of PI and GI score from baselineto the last evaluation was found to be 0.56 and 0.28, whereas among partially blind children, it wasfound to be 0.58 and 0.25, respectively. All the above values were statistically significant (P < 0.001).CONCLUSION: Visually impaired children irrespective of the degree of blindness could maintain anacceptable level of oral hygiene when taught using Braille text for instructions. However, continuousmotivation and reinforcement at regular intervals are required for the maintenance of oral health status.