Evaluation of oral health education programs for oral health of individuals with visual impairment: An umbrella review

Abstract

AimTo exemplify, summarize and critically appraise the systematic reviews (SRs) that evaluated different oral health education (OHE) interventions in individuals with visual impairment (VI).MethodologySix electronic databases were searched for SRs evaluating OHE programs in individuals with VI. The internal validity of the included SRs was evaluated using the Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews‐2 (AMSTAR‐2) tool. The degree of overlap of the primary studies in the included SRs was calculated using the "corrected covered area (CCA)" approach.ResultsSeven SRs were included in this umbrella review that included 30 primary studies with a CCA of 26% (very high overlap). Six of the included SRs were assessed to have critically low confidence in the results, whereas only one had moderate confidence.ConclusionsA combination of various OHE methods for individuals with VI might be better than using one method alone to improve oral hygiene. There is no conclusive evidence that one OHE method is superior to others. However, the evidence of OHE in improving the outcomes related to dental trauma or caries is inconclusive. Furthermore, it appears that most of the evaluations of oral health programs come from limited parts of the world, and data from many other regions is lacking.

Oral health in youth with visual impairment: A longitudinal survey

“…Working with patients with visual impairments is more challenging for dental hygienists than caring for their sighted peers. The oral hygiene instruction methods reported in the literature that are suitable for subjects with visual handicaps are the use of instructions in Braille writing, audio-tactile performance (ATP) techniques, 3D tooth models, techniques involving tactile or auditory sensations using computer software like Job Access With Speech (JAWSR©) or the use of audio stories 19 , 20 . In the present study 3D tactile models were used for better explanation of the tooth shape, tooth structure, and diseases such as dental caries and periodontal diseases (Fig.…”