Oral health status and treatment needs of children in a special needs school in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Objectives: This study aimed to assess oral health status and treatment needs among special needs children (SNC) in a Special Education Integrated Programme school in the Klang Valley
Methods: A total of 82 special needs children with different types of learning disabilities aged 6-12 years old, who complied with the criteria, participated in this study. Data was collected by clinical examination and analysed using SPSS 20.0 system.
Results: For primary dentition status, 62.2% of the SNC presented with ≤ 1 decayed teeth while 85.4% have no restoration in their oral cavity. For permanent dentition, 68.3% of SNC had no decayed teeth while 95.1% had no restoration. However, almost all SNC required oral hygiene education while more than half of them required oral prophylaxis and restorative treatment. Only 20.7% require extraction and 12.2% were advised to undergo orthodontic treatment. 7.3% of SNC presented with tooth anomalies. More than a third have both Class I or Class II incisor relationship respectively and two-thirds presented with Class I facial profile. 13.4% of SNC have undesirable oral habits.
Conclusions: SNC who participated in this study have satisfactory oral health status, however, they lack adequate oral hygiene awareness which requires further reinforcement.