Dental characteristics of children with cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy is one of the commonest children's physical handicaps with frequency of 1.5-3/1000. Beside many other disturbances, these children may have serious disorders caused by dental diseases. Concerning this fact, the objective of our study was to examine children with cerebral palsy in our contry and determine condition of dental health and suggest adequate protective measures. A total of 116 children, 3-18 years old, with cerebral palsy were examined and the results were compared to the control group of healthy children of the same age. Among healthy children, 7-10 years old, 66.3% had healthy parodontium, while none of children with cerebral palsy had healthy parodontium. Children, 11-14 years old with cerebral palsy had higher percentage of untreated caries, but lower percentage of filled teeth (18.7%) compared to healthy children (55.0%). Children, 15-18 years old with cerebral palsy had significantly higher percentage of extracted teeth (10.6%) than healthy children (4.1%) and more often orthodontic anomalies (70.6%), compared to healthy children (46.9%). Results of these study indicate that children with cerebral palsy need special and planned dental care.