Avaliação dos tratamentos odontológicos de pacientes com paralisia cerebral atendidos em um serviço de atenção secundária da Prefeitura Municipal de Belo Horizontes no período de 1999 a 2003

Abstract

Patients with special needs, mainly with cerebral palsy, present series of difficulties regarding the maintenance of their oral health. The objective of this study was to evaluate cerebral palsy patients treated at the Padre Eustáquio PAM in the secondary care during the period of 1999 to 2003, regarding the self oral care practices, periodontal conditions, use of medication, diet and CPOD index distribution by age range. Data of the dental clinic files of patients treated during the period of 1999 to 2003 in the secondary care services at the Padre Eustáquio PAM of PBH were evaluated. After the Padre Eustáquio PAM manager´s consent,all the available files were evaluated, and the ones that contained information regarding the treatment of cerebral palsy patients were selected. The results were organized and computed in Excel tables. Half of the patients treated had their teeth brushed by some other caregiver who was not their mothers. Of the analyzed files 63.16 % had CPITN between 1 and 2. Half of the patients had a cariogenic dietand most of them, 56.26% had already received outpatient dental care. From the presented results, it was concluded that cerebral palsy patients have a precarious oral health condition, specially the periodontal one. There is need to educate the caregivers regarding the dietary aspects and the oral hygiene of these patients. As an intervention strategy, it is proposed family or caregivers participation in all the steps of the directed program for this group of patients, domiciliary visits with the necessary periodicity to evaluate case by case, the creation of alternativeconstraint methods so that these patients can facilitate their hygiene, such as the use of pet bottle, openers designed with wood and gauze and even constraint sheets. To train the family oral health teams to help in the monitoring of this program, to sensitize the oral health teams about the need of this intervention for these patients.