Short-term effect of two education methods on oral health among hearing impairment children

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Poor oral health among children with impaired hearing has been reported frequently due to lack of communication skills and effective health educations. In this study, we assessed the effect of two training methods on short-term oral health outcomes among children with impaired hearing.METHODS: In this experimental study, 80 hearing impairment (HI) student aged 7-19 years old were randomized into two groups, one group watched a guided training video and the other group was educated by a dental model. The training sessions were weekly and continued for 1 month. A trained dentist examined all participants using O’Leary plaque index (PI) at baseline, 1-month, and 3-month visits.RESULTS: At baseline, the difference between the mean O’Leary PI in the video training and dental model training groups was not significant (34.3% vs. 35.6%). In the video training group, sharp decrease was seen at the 1-month visit (reinforcement periods), i.e., 18.7% (P = 0.001), followed by a slight increase at the 3-month visit (non-reinforcement periods), i.e., 19.1% (P = 0.100), respectively. On the other hand, in the dental model, a decreasing trend was seen 24.7% at 1-month (reinforcement periods) and 19.9% (P = 0.001) at 3-month visits (non-reinforcement periods). Overall, there were no significant differences between the two methods of training (P = 0.300).CONCLUSION: Both video and dental model effectively improve the oral health of children with HI in short term. Continuous school-based oral health education programs, particularly for HI children, need to be considered.