Evaluation of oral health levels and oral health education results of 12-15 years-old, hearing-impaired, vision-impaired students and students without handicap in Diyarbakir

The etiology of periodontal diseases is substantially related with microbial dental plaque. Mechanical and chemical plaque control methods are applied to prevent periodontal diseases that are very common in society. For this purpose, oral health and motivation education is given by dentists. It's considered that giving oral health education to primary and secondary school children increases the improvement rate. It is especially important to get disabled individuals, who are the most disadventaged group in reaching health services, to adopt tooth brushing habit; both for them and for the society. In addition, there are limited number of studies about disabled individuals in our country. The present study aims at evaluating the changes in oral health levels and knowledge-attitudes of 12-15 year-old visually-impaired, hearing-impaired students and students without handicap after oral hygiene motivation in Diyarbakir. For this purpose, totally 133 students were grouped into three groups according to their handicap statuses namely; visually-impaired, hearing-impaired, and without handicap. For identifying the levels of clinical periodontal status before motivation education, the plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI) and gingival bleeding index (GBI) were recorded for all the students. A knowledge-attitude survey was also applied for detecting students' knowledge levels about oral health before education; it was also given to the families; and lastly, motivation and nutrition education was provided to the students with face to face contact. One month after the education, indexes and survey were reapplied. Family survey was collected and data were evaluated statistically. The results of the clinical parameters before and after motivation education displayed that PI, GI and GBI values of hearing-impaired students and students without handicap were lower than pre-education and this difference was statistically meaningful (p<0,05). On the other hand, all index values of visually-impaired students decreased after the education but only plaque index (PI) was statistically meaningful (p<0,05). The examination of the correlations between clinical parameters of pre- and post-education for hearing-impaired students demonstrated a positive corelation and statistically meaningful relationship between Pİ1 and PI2; GI1 and GI2; GBI1 and GBI2; GI1 and GBI2. There was a positive correlation and statistically meaningful relationship between PI2 and GBI1, GI1 and GI2, GI1 and GBI1, GI2 and GBI1. Lastly, the clinical parameters for students without handicap were as follows; there was a positive correlation and statistically meaningful relationship between GI1 and GBI1, GI1 and GBI2, GI1 and GBİ1, Gİ2 (p<0,05). Changes in compliances with oral examination of all three groups of students between pre- and post-motivation are statistically meaningful. In knowledge-attitude survey including 21 questions, the changes in 13 answers of students without handicap group; 11 answers of visually-impaired students group; and 13 answers of hearing-impaired students group were statistically meaningful (p<0,05). Uygulanan aile anketindente ise gruplar arası istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir fark bulunmamamıştır (p>0.05). According to the study results; it's considered that when appropriate motivation education is given considering the kind of obstacle, visually-impaired and hearing-impaired students can show similar improvement with the students without handicap.