Dental Attendance Pattern of Paediatric Patients with Chronic Medical Conditions

Introduction: Poor oral health has been found to affect the ‘quality of life' of a child. It is important, especially in children with chronic medical conditions, to be made a priority group for dental care. However, the oral health of these children may be neglected since the primary attention of parents is usually focused on medical treatment. Objective: This study aimed to find out the dental attendance pattern among paediatric patients with chronic medical problems at Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM), Kuala Lumpur. Methods: Clinical records of new patients attending the Paediatric Dental Clinic between January to December 2004 were looked at. Relevant data from the history taking were recorded. Among these were the age of the patient, diagnosis of medical condition, past dental history and cause of referral to the Paediatric Dental Clinic. Results: In total, 85 new patients were included into the study. The mean age of the patients was 6.5 years. Majority (43.5%) had neurological disorders. 76.5% of the patients were referred to the clinic by the Department of Paediatrics at HUKM. and only 1 (1.2%) was referred by a private dental practitioner. 74.1% of the subjects were referred to the clinic because of dental caries and from this, 15.3% of the subjects were already showing signs and symptoms of pulpal involvement. Only 23.5% (n=20) subjects had a history of previous dental visit. Conclusions: Majority of the child and adolescent patients with chronic medical problems at HUKM had never been to the dentist previously and the main reason they were referred to the Paediatric Dental Clinic was because of dental caries.