Oral Hygiene Status and Gingival Status of the 12- to 15-year-old Orphanage Children Residing in Delhi State: A Cross-sectional Study

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To assess oral hygiene status and practices among 12- to 15-year-old orphanage children in Delhi State, India. STUDY DESIGN: In this cross-sectional study, a one-stage cluster sampling design was carried out with orphanages as a cluster unit to assess oral hygiene status and practices among orphanage children in Delhi state, India. RESULTS: The majority of the orphanage children had good oral hygiene status (53.8%) followed by fair (32.3%) and poor (13.9%) oral hygiene status. A large proportion (48.3%) of the orphanage children had mild gingival status followed by moderate (34.9%) and severe (16.8%) gingival status. No statistical difference was reported for the distribution of oral hygiene status and gingival score across all the age-groups. Most (53%) of the orphanage children among all age-groups had good plaque status. The correlation of gingival index (GI) scores with plaque index (PI) score and oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-S) scores showed a significant correlation of GI scores with PI scores (r = 0.815) and OHI-S scores (r = 0.799). CONCLUSION: The oral hygiene practices and oral hygiene status along with gingival status were found to be satisfactory among orphanage children in the present study. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Gingival and periodontal diseases have a high prevalence among orphanages because of poor hygiene practices. Untreated oral diseases could lead to general health problems. Thus, the preventive strategies can be planned with the exact knowledge of the oral hygiene status of these special needs children in Delhi state. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Kumari A, Marya C, Oberoi SS, et al. Oral Hygiene Status and Gingival Status of the 12- to 15-year-old Orphanage Children Residing in Delhi State: A Cross-sectional Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(4):482–487.