Evaluation of the oral health situation of a group of Egyptian haemophilic children and their re-evaluation following an oral hygiene and diet education programme

Abstract

Haemophilic children in Egypt have received minimal dental intervention and their dental needs required assessment. The purpose of this study was to assess the oral health needs of a sample (n = 60) of Egyptian haemophilic children (6-12 years), so as to develop, implement and evaluate an oral hygiene education programme over an 8-month period on the experimental group (n = 30) vs. the control group (n = 30). The oral hygiene index simplified (OHI-S) index was used for baseline data and at the end of the study, while DMFS and defs were used to collect caries experience baseline data on each subject. The results showed that the DMFT and deft were significantly higher than those of the non-haemophilic population in Egypt and also higher than those of haemophilic children in developed countries and that the decayed component represented most of the index values. At phase I, the mean value of the OHI-S of experimental and the control groups was 2.67 +/- 0.45 and 2.53 +/- 0.53, respectively, but the difference was not significant (P > 0.05), both values were in the 'fair' category (1.3-3.0). At phase II, the end of the 8 months follow-up period and after the application of a strict oral care programme in the experimental group, there was a significant decrease from 2.67 to 1.20 (P < 0.001), a shift of values occurred from the 'fair' category to the 'good' category (0.1-1.2) while there was no significant difference in the control group. It can be concluded that professional plaque control, education and access to oral hygiene aids is paramount to improve oral health of these children.