Implications of visual deficiency in the control capability of bacterial plaque and tooth loss

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the capability of controlling bacterial plaque of visual impaired individuals. Firstly, a questionnaire, which was consisted of three thematic areas with questions about popular knowledge, perception and daily practices in oral health of visual impaired individuals of the Associação Catarinense para a Integração do Cego was applied. Next, the bacterial plaque control capability was evaluated by means of the Plaque Control Index (PCI) in 48 visual impaired. From the total of individuals, 22 had low vision and 26 blindness. From the population being studied, 70.83% of the sample reported to brush their teeth more than twice a day. However, when teeth brushing quality was evaluated by the PCI, it could be observed that it was suitable in 35.42% of the individuals only. The statistical analysis did not show significant relation (5%) between the visual condition and the PCI (p = 0.4945) and between that one and the number of lost teeth (LT) (p = 0.7929). The same thing happened with the application of the Spearman correlation test (5%) for the correlation between the time of visual impairment and the variables PCI (r = 0.168; p = 0.2534) and LT (r = 0.2703; p = 0.0631). So, it was possible to conclude that visual condition can not be considered as an aggravating factor for bacterial plaque control capability and teeth loss.