Role of Dental Discomfort Questionnaire-Based Approach in Recognition of Symptomatic Expressions Due to Dental Pain in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Chandana Penmetsa; Sarada Penmetcha; Sampath Reddy Cheruku; Sreekanth Kumar Mallineni; Anil Kumar Patil; Srinivas Namineni

doi:10.4103/ccd.ccd_728_18

Role of Dental Discomfort Questionnaire-Based Approach in Recognition of Symptomatic Expressions Due to Dental Pain in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Contemp Clin Dent. 2019 Jul-Sep;10(3):446-451. doi: 10.4103/ccd.ccd_728_18.

Authors

Chandana Penmetsa¹, Sarada Penmetcha¹, Sampath Reddy Cheruku¹, Sreekanth Kumar Mallineni^{2

3}, Anil Kumar Patil¹, Srinivas Namineni¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Sri Sai College of Dental Surgery, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
² Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Narayana Dental College and Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India.
³ Department of Preventive Dental Science, College of Dentistry, Majmaah University, Al-Zulfi, KSA.

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate whether the Dental Discomfort Questionnaire (DDQ) could help to identify toothaches in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Materials and methods: This study involved sixty children between the age groups of 6-16 years, attending the day-care schools diagnosed with ASD. Five different groups of children were identified based on the presence of a toothache and/or carious teeth. The DDQ-8 was completed by parents and evaluated by a single examiner. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (SPSS version 17), and a correlation was observed between the total DDQ score and the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft-DMFT) score.

Results: Analysis of the data showed that DDQ-8 had a significant correlation with that of DMFT score in a group "with carious teeth but no toothache" (r = 0.497, P = 0.019) and group "with carious teeth and a toothache" (r = 0.682 P = 0.043). A group "without carious teeth where the parents were not sure whether or not the child had a toothache" had higher mean compared to other groups with DDQ-8 scores.

Conclusion: There was a significant difference in the total mean DDQ scores when they were compared with that of the control group. Children with high DDQ-8 often had a high DMFT/dmft score. A significant correlation was found when the total DDQ-8 scores were compared with that of the DMFT score.

Keywords: Autism; Dental Discomfort Questionnaire; behavior; caries; toothache.