Comparison of oro-dental conditions of mentally and physically disabled persons in Zahedan

Background: The oro-dental condition of mentally and physically disabled individuals is one of
the important concepts in preventive dentistry. The aim of this study is to evaluate those conditions
in these two groups in Zahedan (Iran).
Methods and Materials: This survey was compared the oro-dental conditions in 94 mentally
handicapped and 104 physically handicapped. The mentally handicapped group subdivided into
three groups: educable (10), trainable (45), and isolated (39). The physically handicapped group
consists of three groups: physically impaired (28), hearing impaired (44), and visually impaired
(32). The oro-dental health index consisted of DMFT, crowding, anterior and posterior teeth
attrition, oral health index consisting of debris index (D1-s) and calculus index (C1-s).
Results: Mean DMFT in 7-14 year-olds mentally and physically disabled persons were 3.2 and
3.7 , respectively in 15-25 year-olds were 2.7 and 3.6 and in 26 year-olds and upper was 5.7 and
3.7 respectively which did not show significant correlation by Mann-Whitney test. It was 5, 4.1 and
1.6 in educable, trainable and isolated mentally handicapped which was significantly meaningful
(P<0.05). There was no significant correlation between disability and crowding, anterior and
posterior attrition index. The D1-s and C1-s was significantly higher in mentally disabled groups
than those in other disabled groups.
Conclusions: Specific consideration to oro-dental complications of disabled groups and to set up
an efficient managing system is advisable.