Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at high risk for oral disease. The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of sensory processing problems to challenges in receiving oral care for children with ASD. A questionnaire was sent to the parents of 206 children with disabilities to test the hypotheses that children with ASD, relative to children with other disabilities, experience greater difficulty with home-based and professional oral care, and that these difficulties may relate in part to sensory processing problems. The results partially supported these hypotheses. Compared to children with other disabilities, those with ASD had greater behavioral difficulties and sensory sensitivities that parents believed interfered with their child's oral care. Among children with ASD, sensory sensitivities were associated with oral care difficulties in the home and dental office, and with behavioral difficulties in the dental office. Utilizing strategies to modify the sensory environment may help facilitate oral care in children with ASD.
This pilot and feasibility study examined the impact of a sensory adapted dental environment (SADE) to reduce distress, sensory discomfort, and perception of pain during oral prophylaxis for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants were 44 children ages 6-12 (n=22 typical, n=22 ASD). In an experimental crossover design, each participant underwent two professional dental cleanings, one in a regular dental environment (RDE) and one in a SADE, administered in a randomized and counterbalanced order three to four months apart. Outcomes included measures of physiological anxiety, behavioral distress, pain intensity, and sensory discomfort. Both groups exhibited decreased physiological anxiety and reported lower pain and sensory discomfort in the SADE condition compared to RDE, indicating a beneficial effect of the SADE.
Background
Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience barriers to oral care in the dental office setting. The purpose of this study was to provide an increased understanding of these challenges experienced during oral care in the dental office by children with ASD.
Method
This study was part of a larger mixed methods design and builds on quantitative results from a survey of parents of children with ASD ages 2–18 in which parents reported difficulties with access to care, sensory processing, and uncooperative behaviors. For this study, we conducted two, three hour, focus groups of parents of male children with ASD age 5–18 years in order to explore the survey results in greater depth. Focus group transcripts were analyzed using a template coding approach based on the three domains of office-based oral care challenges identified in the first phase (survey).
Results
Several related themes emerged including: (1) Access: “Difficult to find the right dentist”, (2) Sensory sensitivities: “All the sensory devices just make him so uncomfortable”, (3) Restraint: “It looked like they were torturing him”, and (4) Drugs: “A mixed bag”.
Conclusions
The qualitative findings from this study both confirmed our previous survey findings and expanded upon them. These findings can help professionals better understand the challenges experienced by children with ASD and their parents as well as help identify priorities for planning efforts to address the oral health-related needs of this population.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.