Challenges and solutions in managing dental problems in children with autism
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face unique challenges in maintaining oral health due to sensory sensitivities, communication difficulties, and behavioral barriers. These factors, along with limited access to ASD-trained dental professionals, increase their risk of dental caries, periodontal disease, bruxism, and other oral health issues. Despite growing awareness of these challenges, a comprehensive synthesis of evidence-based solutions remains lacking. AIM: To review synthesizes existing research on dental problems in ASD, barriers to care, management strategies, and future directions for improved oral health outcomes. METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Scopus was conducted using predefined search terms. Related to ASD, dental health, and management strategies. Inclusion criteria encompassed studies focusing on children with ASD, dental health issues, and interventions. Data extraction included study design, participant characteristics, key findings, and intervention outcomes. The quality of studies was assessed using appropriate tools such as the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. A narrative synthesis approach, incorporating thematic analysis, was utilized to evaluate the findings. RESULTS: A total of 165 studies met the inclusion criteria. Children with ASD exhibited a higher prevalence of dental caries, gingivitis, bruxism, and malocclusion compared to neurotypical peers. Barriers to dental care included sensory sensitivities, communication difficulties, financial constraints, and a shortage of ASD-trained dental professionals. Effective interventions included desensitization programs, behavioral therapy, digital applications, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Parental education and professional training were crucial for improving oral health outcomes. CONCLUSION: Tailored dental care strategies, including sensory adaptations, behavioral interventions, and interdisciplinary collaboration, are essential for children with ASD. Standardized guidelines and long-term studies are needed to refine evidence-based protocols. Future research should explore digital interventions and probiotic applications in ASD dental care.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".