The Quality of Toothbrushing in Children with Intellectual Disabilities Enrolled in an Oral Health Promotion Programme: A Paired Study.

PURPOSE: To assess the quality of toothbrushing of children with intellectual disability (ID). MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred thirty-six children, 68 with ID (SG = study group) and 68 non-ID (CG = control group), were paired. Their caregivers completed a questionnaire about socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and another about oral hygiene habits. The toothbrushing technique and position adopted were documented and the duration of the procedure was measured. A modification of the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (SM-OHI) was used to classify the quality of brushing as: adequate, when all the teeth had SM-OHI 0 or 1; or inadequate, when at least one tooth had SM-OHI 2 or 3. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to assess the normality of data distribution for age, duration of brushing and SM-OHI. Fisher's exact test and the chi-squared test were applied to assess the association between ID and oral hygiene habits or characteristics of toothbrushing. To compare the duration of brushing groups, the Mann-Whitney test was applied. Student's t-test for independent samples was applied to compare mean MS-OHI. RESULTS: Mothers were the main persons performing children's toothbrushing in SG. They reported a higher daily brushing frequency, longer toothbrushing duration of children in the SG, SG children had lower SM-OHI scores and were thus rated as having adequate toothbrushing, in contrast to the CG (p < 0.001, p < 0.001; p = 0.012; p < 0.001; p < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Toothbrushing provided by caregivers for ID children was more effective than toothbrushing carried out by non-ID children of the same age and gender.

Dentin hypersensitivity treatment of non-carious cervical lesions - a single-blind, split-mouth study.

This study aims to compare the in vivo effect of a desensitizing therapy associated with a restorative technique for the treatment of cervical dentin hypersensitivity (CDH) in non-carious lesions. The sample consisted of 68 teeth with moderate or severe dentin hypersensitivity in 17 individuals (one tooth per quadrant). The sensitivity levels of the teeth were scored, and the teeth were randomly distributed into four groups: T1 - desensitizing gel applied once per week until remission of pain; T2 - desensitizing gel applied once per week followed immediately by restoration with resin composite (Filtek Z250, 3M Espe); T3 - desensitizing gel once per week until remission of pain and then restoration with resin composite; and T4 - restoration with resin composite. Dentin hypersensitivity was assessed at 0, 7, 30, 90 and 180 days. The Kruskal-Wallis, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney (p < 0.05) tests were used to compare the treatments. The mean baseline CDH scores were T1 - 2.41, T2 - 2.41, T3 - 2.47, and T4 - 2.70 (p > 0.05). At seven and 180 days, the mean CDH scores were as follows: T1 - 1.47/0.65, T2 - 1.35/0.71, T3 - 0.71/0.53, and T4 - 1.12/0.59, all of which were significantly lower (p < 0.001) than the baseline scores. The scores at 30, 90 and 180 days were not significantly different when compared to the score of the previous period. At 180 days, CDH scores were similar among groups (p > 0.05). Teeth with moderate or severe hypersensitivity that required a filling responded similarly regardless of whether the desensitizing procedure was carried out prior to the filling.