5-8 YAŞLARI ARASINDAKİ ÇOCUKLARDA AĞIZ DİŞ SAĞLIĞI İLE ÇİĞNEME VE YUTMA FONKSİYONLARININ DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

Abstract

Problems that may occur in orofacial functions such as chewing and swallowing may endanger the protection of the airway and cause malnutrition and dehydration problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the orofacial function performance, oral health status and possible relationships of healthy children. In this descriptive study, oral functions of 400(mean age 78.02±12.12 months, 200 male) children, who applied to pediatric dentistry clinic were evaluated. Various scales (Karaduman Chewing Performance Scale (KÇPS), Pediatric version of the Eating Assessment Tool (PEDI-EAT-10), Nordic Orofacial Test- Screening (NOT-S) protocol were used to evaluate orofacial functions. Carious lesions were evaluated by using DMFT, DMFS, dmft, dmfs indices (decayed (D,d), missing (M,m) and filled (F,f) tooth (t) or surface (s); which the upper cases were for permanent and lower cases were for primary dentition) and International Caries Detection and Assessment-II System (ICDAS-II). According to KCPS, 58.0% of children are level 0 (functional swallowing), 35.8% are level 1 (having difficulty converting food into bolus) and 6.3% are Level 2 (having difficulty holding food in the molar area) received the score. The Chi square test results between KCPS levels and DMFT, dmft, DT, dt, MT, mt skore were statistically significantly different. (p=0.044, p=0.009, p=0.008, p=0.000, p=0.032 and p=0.003, respectively) The total PEDI-EAT-10 score of 13.4% of children were 3 or higher. According to NOT-S, only 3.0% of the children had no problems with orofacial function and the most affected domains were “Habits”(51.0%), “Facial Expression”(49.3%) and “Chewing and Swallowing”(45.3%). As a result, healthy children without any defined disease may not be able to maintain their orofacial functions adequately and effectively. Therefore, evaluation of orofacial functions in different scales during oral examination of children, especially in the presence of intense caries or missing teeth, may be helpful for early diagnosis and taking necessary precautions.