Prevalence of Dental Caries among Autistic Children in Saudi Arabia

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to obtain baseline information regarding prevalence of dental caries and oral hygiene status in autistic children attending rehabilitating centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

 Methods: The sample was collected from four different rehabilitating centers. Eighty-two autistic children were examined with a mean age of 7.2. The mean dmft score was 3.45 and the mean DMFT score was 1.6 for primary and permanent dentition, respectively

Results: The prevalence of dental caries in our sample was 72.3% while the mean DMFT was 1.6 and mean dmft 3.45 . Half of the sample reported fair oral hygiene while the other half was divided between good and poor oral hygiene

Conclusions: The prevalence of dental caries of autistic children did not show statistically significant difference from normal children nor from other studies regarding autistic children.