Sumith Gunawardane¹, Randilini Angammana², Shyama Bannaheka², Manil Fonseka^3,

There is an under-researched area in scientific literature, regarding the oral health status and dental epidemiological investigations of the socially marginalized groups such as institutionalized children. The aim of this survey was to determine “the oral health status and impact of socio-behavioral factors of children under probationary care in Sri Lanka. A cross sectional population based study was conducted at 36 homes of institutionalized children in Central Province, Sri Lanka. All the children (1104) were screened and those who were above 6 years old has included to the study. An interview administered questionnaire was filled out for each child. Comprehensive oral examination was conducted by three calibrated examiners. The prevalence of dental caries in deciduous teeth was 26.86% while 56.79% in permanent teeth. The mean dmft was 0.75±1.61 while the mean DMFT was 1.19±1.43. Gingival bleeding presented in 44.67% of study subjects. Despite reporting higher usage of tooth brush and tooth paste, high percentage of bleeding gums were found in these children and this could be attributable to improper tooth brushing techniques and lack of individual supervision.

oral health, institutionalized children