EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF THE ORAL HEALTH OF BLIND ADULTS

Abstract

It describes the quantitative analysis of the oral health condition of 34 visually impaired adults, attended by the extension project “Dental care for the visually impaired: oral health condition”, on August 9, 2022, in the oral health laboratory. The information collected was recorded in an individualized dental record containing demographic data, general anamnesis and oral anamnesis and indices for the main oral diseases. The annotated data were later tabulated in an Excel spreadsheet, stratified by graphs, described in a Word document and presented using PowerPoint. The majority of people are female (59%); resident in the 17th health region of Paraná (97%); white (65%) and single (37%) declarants; with a complete secondary education level (35.29%) where only 17.65% are in the world of work and with chronic illnesses (85%). Oral clinical evaluation detected a high prevalence of dental calculus and periodontal pockets with attachment loss between 0 and 3 mm; the oral hygiene condition was considered good, despite the high DMFT index with several sextants excluded. Five people in need of prosthetics and three people for anatomopathological examinations of the oral mucosa were referred to the basic health unit. The research highlighted that descriptive epidemiology helps to improve the provision of dental services and highlights the need for changes in the work process of the oral health team to meet the needs of this population group, as they do not prove to be effective for visually impaired people.