Factors influencing the severity of dental caries among Indonesian children with autism spectrum disorder – a pilot study

AIM: To assess the prevalence of dental caries among autism spectrum disorders (ASD) children in Surabaya, Indonesia, and to explore the association between oral health-related behaviors comprising toothbrushing, snacking and dental visiting and the severity of caries. METHODS: The prevalence and severity of caries were assessed using DMF-T/dmf-t and PUFA/pufa indexes for mixed dentitions. The parents or carers’ responses were collected to identify the oral health-related behaviors that were associated with caries severity. RESULTS: This study shows that almost 79% of ASD children in Surabaya were experiencing caries and 47.1% had untreated caries with pulp involvement or more severe conditions. Oral health behaviour factors associated with the severity of dental caries experienced by children with autism were brushing frequency (Β [95% CI] =2.46 [0.09–4.83] and 2.03 [0.78–3.28]), brushing time (Β [95% CI] =3.76 [1.32–6.20] and 2.03 [0.74–3.32]) and cleansing after snack (B [95% CI] = 2.04 [0.20–3.89] and 1.21 [0.23–2.18]) in DMF-T/dmf-t and PUFA/pufa indexes, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of caries among children with autism in Surabaya was high. The severity was associated with brushing and snacking behaviors. Caries in children with autism should be paid attention, and research in modifying daily activities are needed to allow them to adopt more healthy oral health-related behaviors.