THE EFFECT OF TOOTH BRUSHING ASSISTANCE AMONG BLIND AND DEAF STUDENTS TOWARDS ORAL HYGIENE

2016-10-15

en

Conference or Workshop Item

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Background: The level of oral hygiene index among special need sudents is worse than normal ones due to their high rate of calculus and debris index. They need to improve their skills in maintaining their oral health, such as brushing their teeth. The parents assistance of brushing their child’s teeth might be one of the solution. The aim of this research is to know the effect of tooth brushing assistance among blind and deaf students towards debris index changes Methods: This study was quantitative descriptive with cross sectional approach. The population was the students of SLB Semarang. The samples were 20 blind students and 20 deafs students which were 8-12 years old. Each group was divided into two sub groups with and without assistance. Parents given training of brushing teeth techniques would assist their child in brushing their teeth along 21 days and debris index would be observed every week. Results: There was signifficant difference in debris index changes between the group of deaf and blind students (Sig. 0,0029). Tooth brushing assistance were more effective on deaf group (Sig. 0,042) than blind (Sig. 0,067). The decrease of debris index among deaf students with parents assistance were 54.17% and 15.52% without parents assistance; among blind students with parents assistance increased 3.39% and 1.69% without parents assistance. Conclusion: The effect of tooth brushing assistance among deaf were more effective than blind students. Keywords: blind and deaf students, tooth brushing, debris index