The Relationship of Oral Health in Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Their Ability to Cooperate for Care, Type of Residence and Level of Disability

Objectives: Adults with intellectual and developmentally disabilities (IDD) are reported to have high prevalence of oral diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate independent associations of oral diseases with types of residence, cooperation levels and levels of disability. The hypotheses that the prevalence of oral disease increases with more independent types of residence, higher cooperation levels for dental care and decrease with more involved levels of intellectual disability (ID) were tested in this study.;Methods: This retrospective, population based cross-sectional study assessed clinical and demographic data collected from electronic dental records of dentate adults with IDD who received comprehensive dental care through a state-supported system of dental clinics and had a dental examination between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010. The compiled data was converted to SPSS data sets and analyzed using SPSS Version 22 (IBM Corporation).;Results: The mean (SD) age of the 4,218 dentate subjects with IDD (58.2% male) was 47.5 (13.5) years and ranged from 20-94 years. The prevalence of untreated dental caries and periodontitis was 32.2% and 80.3% respectively. There were statistically significant associations between oral diseases (untreated dental caries, caries experience and periodontitis) and specific type of residence, cooperation level for dental care and level of ID. Higher odds of untreated caries and caries experience were associated with more independent type of residence, higher levels of cooperation and less profound level of ID. Conversely, lower odds of periodontitis were associated with more independent type of residence and milder levels of ID.;Conclusions: The association of dental caries with more independent living environments and of periodontitis with more institutionalized settings, suggest that dental caries and periodontal disease may require two distinct approaches to disease prevention and management approaches as well as may be influenced by factors associated with type of residence. Further exploration of these variables is warranted to better understand environmental, family and individual risk factors for dental caries and periodontitis in adults with IDD.