Occurrence of Dental Trauma in a Group of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Objective: To assess the occurrence of dental trauma in a group of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in comparison to children without the disorder. Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted at the Department of Children and Adolescents Health in the Department of Health of Juiz de Fora, Brazil. The study included individuals with and without ASD, between three and 16 years old, and their parents/caregivers. Children/adolescents were assessed for dental trauma by clinical examination. All exams were performed by a trained and calibrated examiner (MCT), and intra-examiner reliability was previously established (Kappa=0.93). The Socio-demographic status was reported by parents/caregivers. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and generation of frequency distributions. Fisher’s exact test was used to evaluate the association between groups of children/adolescents with and without ASD about the presence of dental trauma. The significance level was set at p<0.05. Results: Sixty children of both sexes participated in the study, thirty with a diagnosis of ASD and thirty without. The age ranging from 3 to 13 years, with an average of 7.5 ± 3.2 years. Children with ASD had a higher frequency of dental trauma than children without ASD (p=0.02), and the most frequent type of trauma was enamel fracture (57.10%), followed by enamel/dentin fracture without pulp exposure (42.90%). Conclusion:  Children with ASD, when compared to children who did not have ASD, had a higher occurrence of dental trauma.