Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Nov;63(11):1359-1378.
doi: 10.1111/jir.12632. Epub 2019 May 23.

Oral health of adults with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review

L M Ward  1 , S A Cooper  1 , L Hughes-McCormack  1 , L Macpherson  2 , D Kinnear  1
Affiliations
Free article

Oral health of adults with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review

L M Ward et al. J Intellect Disabil Res. 2019 Nov.
Free article

Abstract

Background: There have been several past reports that adults with intellectual disabilities experience poor oral health (tooth loss, periodontal health and untreated dental caries). Loss of a functional dentition has serious consequences, including problems with chewing, swallowing, nutrition, speech, temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis and pain and systemic health conditions. Poor oral health is largely preventable through proactive oral care support. In recent years, social care provision for adults has changed, with deinstitutionalisation and home-based personalised care now being the typical provision in high income countries. Hence, oral health inequalities might be reducing. However, there is limited recent evidence-synthesis on the topic. We aimed to address this.

Method: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42018089880. We conducted a preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses systematic review of publications since 2008. Four databases were searched with a clear search strategy, strict inclusion criteria for selection of papers, double scoring (two raters), systematic data extraction and quality appraisal of included papers.

Results: A total of 33/3958 retrieved articles were included, of which 14 were drawn from dental service users and 10 from Special Olympic athletes, therefore not necessarily being representative of the wider population with intellectual disabilities. Despite this limitation, adults with intellectual disabilities were still shown to experience poor oral health. High levels of poor oral hygiene and gingivitis were found, with many also affected by periodontitis and untreated dental decay. There is clear unmet need relating to both periodontal (gum) and tooth health, leading to tooth loss.

Conclusions: Despite reports in the past of poor oral health amongst adults with intellectual disabilities, and despite it being preventable, there remains a high burden of poor oral health. This highlights the need to raise awareness, and for polices on effective daily oral care, and appropriate service provision. The importance of oral health and its possible negative sequelae needs to be elevated amongst carers and professionals.

Keywords: intellectual disabilities; oral health; special needs dentistry; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Alves N. S., Gavina V. P., Cortellazzi K. L., Antunes L. A. A., Silveira F. M. & Assaf A. V. (2016) Analysis of clinical, demographic, socioeconomic, and psychosocial determinants of quality of life of persons with intellectual disability: a cross-sectional study. Special Care in Dentistry 36, 307-314.
    1. Anders P. L. & Davis E. L. (2010) Oral health of patients with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review. Special Care in Dentistry 30, 110-117.
    1. Aragon C. E. & Burneo J. G. (2007) Understanding the patient with epilepsy and seizures in the dental practice. Journal of the Canadian Dental Association 73, 71-76.
    1. Bahekar A. A., Singh S., Saha S., Molnar J. & Arora R. (2007) The prevalence and incidence of coronary heart disease is significantly increased in periodontitis: a meta-analysis. American Heart Journal 154, 830-837.
    1. Batista L. R. V., Moreira E. A. M., Rauen M. S., Corso A. C. T. & Fiates G. M. R. (2009) Oral health and nutritional status of semi-institutionalized persons with mental retardation in Brazil. Research in Developmental Disabilities 30, 839-846.

Publication types

MeSH terms