Oral Pathologies in Migrants: The Experience of the “PROTECT” Project in 3023 Patients

Abstract

Introduction: The number of people with migrant status living in Europe is proliferating. Most of the refugees in Italy come from war zones, and many of them denounce having been victims of persecutory acts in their country of origin. Highly cultured migrant populations have shown better results and oral health behaviour than those who were poorly cultured. The PROTECT project aimed to build a network for the early management of head and neck pathologies among refugees and migrants, promoting the dissemination of correct information about the prevention and treatment of these pathologies. Materials and methods: A national cross-sectional study among the refugees and migrant population in the Lazio region, Italy, from February 2018 to September 2021 was performed. The oral health of 3023 participants was investigated within a network of 56 reception centres and cultural associations. Data collected via an oral health survey questionnaire gathered information on participants’ demographic factors, migration status and dental behaviours and clinical examinations of the participants with the help of mouth mirrors, periodontal probes and artificial light. Results: The mean age was 31.6 ± 13.1, and among all the subjects, 2058 were male (68.1%) and 965 were women (41.9%). Most participants were born in Nigeria, followed by Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia, Mali and Senegal. The overall oral pain prevalence was 48.2%. The prevalence of patients claiming poor oral hygiene was 32.4%; 36.2% of the subjects consumed high amounts of sugar; and 26.7% saw their dentist for a check-up in the last year. At the clinical examination, 68.9% of patients had caries experience (considering decay of deciduous teeth, and caries of permanent teeth and teeth with fillings), with 32.2% showing pulpal involvement. Low levels of oral hygiene were also found at the clinical examination, with 46.5% of patients presenting plaque and calculus. The trend of the DMFT index was found to be 5.41. Good periodontal health (CPI = 0) was present in approximately 33.5% of patients. The CPI = 1 index reported bleeding from gingivitis in 37% of patients; tartar was found in 27% of patients (CPI = 2). The percentage of patients with CPI = 3 was 3.6%. Just over half (52.2%) of the migrants examined had malocclusion, and only 0.7% had a malocclusion in treatment. Conclusions: The goal to be achieved is to develop education and prevention programs for head–neck diseases, and perhaps even more. The first step towards this goal can be removing the obstacles migrants encounter in accessing health care.

Eye Health Screening in Migrant Population: Primary Care Experience in Lazio (Italy) from the PROTECT Project

“…PROTECT project results from oral screening have been already made available and dental pathologies turned out to be widespread and often neglected in asylum seekers, with a high relative abundance of malocclusions and carious lesions. Furthermore, results from this screening have confirmed the crucial role of prevention in a low-income setting to reduce hospitalizations and worsening problems [15].…”

Otolaryngology Conditions and Diseases in Migrants: The Experience of the PROTECT Project

“…In this article, we describe the results obtained in the PROTECT project with a specific focus on otolaryngological conditions and diseases. The results of this project for other conditions were reported elsewhere [21].…”

Eating Behaviours, Oral Hygiene, and Caries in a Population of Spanish Children with Divorced Parents: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The main strength of this study is the focus on an understudied Spanish population, and the results have important practices repercussions in terms of deepening the prevention of caries. In this way, caries improvement programmes could be implemented in primary care centres or in dental clinics during the child's first dental visit with his or her parents, such as the PROTECT project in Italy, which aims to promote the dissemination of information on the prevention and treatment of head and neck diseases [25], as well as the FRAMM Guideline in Sweden [26].…”