The state of oral hygiene, periodontal tissues and assessment of fine motor skills of hands in children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Children with cerebral palsy often face difficulties in controlling their own movements and coordinating muscle activities, making even simple tasks such as individual oral hygiene challenging to perform. Purpose - to assess the index of individual oral hygiene and periodontal tissue condition, development of fine motor skills in children with cerebral palsy to determine the quality of tooth brushing. Materials and methods. The study included 34 children aged 8-12 years with cerebral palsy. The oral hygiene status was determined clinically and using the Fedorov-Volodkina oral hygiene index. The periodontal tissue condition was assessed using the PMA index, the bleeding index by Muhlleman, and the periodontal index. The level of fine motor skills development was assessed using the Motor Giftedness Scale by N.I. Ozeretskyi and special techniques with tasks of different content. Results. The indicators of the level of development and individual components of motor functions, including fine motor skills of the hands in children with cerebral palsy according to the Motor Giftedness Scale by N.I. Ozeretskyi, were 6.67±1.16 points, and 3.12±1.10 and 2.10±0.03 points according to special techniques with tasks of different content. The assessment of oral hygiene using the Fedorov-Volodkina index showed that only 8.82% of cases were rated as «good» «satisfactory» in 26.47% of cases, and «unsatisfactory» in 64.71% of cases. The qualitative assessment of the oral hygiene index showed an average score of 2.5±0.02 points. The PMA index in children with cerebral palsy was 41.67%, bleeding index was 1.47±0.01, and periodontal index was 1.21±0.09. Conclusions. The results of the study showed that due to the impaired development of fine motor skills of the hands in children with cerebral palsy, mechanical cleaning of teeth from dental plaque is complicated, which negatively affects oral hygiene and periodontal tissue condition. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The research protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the institution mentioned in the work. Informed consent from the children’s parents was obtained for the research. No conflict of interests was declared by the author.