The study population consist of 638 children aged 3-18 years
old form 9 special schools of Albania located at six (6) different
cities, the survey sample comprise 599 (94%), six (6) percent were
absent during the examination sessions . Informed consent of
parents or guardians and school authorities was obtained before
the subjects were included in the study. Children that were not
cooperative or whose parents have not given consent are excluded
from the study. Clinical examinations were carried out at schools,
in a school medical room or classroom with natural light. Subjects
were placed lying down supine on a desk or an examination
couch. The examinations were carried out with the aid of an
ordinary mouth mirror and a WHO ball and CPI- tip probe.
The data for each subject were recorded on the standard WHO,
however several changes were made and special survey form has
developed. Children are divided in different groups according
type of disability. For each individual dental caries and treatment
need is assessed for primary and permanent dentition using deft,
defs, DMFT, DMFS indices. Oral hygiene status is calculated using
the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) of Greene and
Vermillion. The oral hygiene of each child was classified as ‘good’
when the OHI-S score was 0–1.2, ‘fair’ when it was 1.21–3.1 and
‘poor’ when it was 3.11 up to 6. Children are visually examined
for dental hygiene and by passing CPI probe parallel to the buccal
and lingual surfaces for the presence of plaque. Data analysis
was conducted in SPSS, version 17.0. Chi square test and Fisher’s
exact test were used to compare the proportions of categorical
variables. On the other hand, ANOVA (analysis of variance) and
Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare mean values of numerical
variables between disability groups.