A Dental Evaluation of Cerebral Palsy Patients at a Regional Hospital in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) present a higher susceptibility to severe dental diseases due to abnormal
neuromuscular co- ordination of the tongue, lips and cheeks. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the oral health status and determine the prevalence of the oral findings of the CP patients who attended the Physiotherapy clinic of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, South-Eastern Nigeria.
Methods: A questionnaire was filled by volunteer parents/guardians. Demographic data for each participating CP patient was obtained. Dental examination was carried out for the participants; oral hygiene and caries status and malocclusion were assessed. Descriptive analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 18S PSS Inc. Chicago. IL).
Results: A total of 42 children aged 7months to lOyears with an average age of 2 years 9 months were included in this study. There were 16(38.1%) females and 26(61.9%) males. Oral hygiene was good in only 2(5.3%), fair in 30(78.9%) participants while it was poor in 6(15.8%). There was a low caries incidence with mean DMFT and dinft o f 0.048 and 0.45 respectively.
About 14.3% of participants had incompetent lips; 5(11.9%) had anterior open bite; 6(14.3%) had increased overjet. Lower labial segment crowding was seen in 2(4.8%) participants while one participant (2.4%) had lower labial spacing. Other findings were hypoplasia present in 3(7.1%) participants, parafunctional habits 14(33.3%) children. Only 8(19.0%) participants had drooling saliva.
Conclusion: In this study, parafunctional habits were the most prevalent oral finding in this group of cerebral palsy patients. A significant percentage, 78.9% of participants had a fair oral hygiene while caries incidence was found to be low.