Oral hygiene status, malocclusion and dental trauma among institutionalized visually impaired and sighted adolescents in Lagos State, Nigeria

Aim To compare prevalence of oral hygiene status, dental trauma and malocclusion among institutionalized visually impaired (VI) and non‐visually impaired (NVI) adolescents in Lagos State, Nigeria. Methods and results A cross sectional study conducted among institutionalized VI and NVI adolescents in Lagos State, Nigeria. One hundred and thirty‐two randomly selected VI adolescents aged between 9 and 23 years and 138 NVI participants aged between 9 and 17 years were recruited using a multi‐stage random sampling technique. Oral examination assessed oral hygiene status, dental trauma and malocclusion. Data entry and analysis was by SPSS version 20. Associations were analyzed using chi‐square test. Statistical significance was set at p < .05. Male to female ratio among the VI and NVI participants, were 1.5:1 and 1:3, mean ages were 15.03 ± 3.36 and 12.96 years ± 1.89 SD, prevalence of dental injury were 16.67% and 7.2% and malocclusion were 15.2% and 11.6% respectively. More of the NVI participants had good oral hygiene status (29.0%). Conclusion Uncomplicated dental injury was more prevalent among the VI male participants than their NVI counterparts while malocclusion was significantly less among the NVI participants. There is an urgent need for the development of policy and protocol on oral health of persons with special needs.