Oral hygiene strategies for blind people through

Abstract

Introduction: Oral problems affect nearly 3.5 billion people, but the most affected people are the blind, having greater difficulty in oral care. Objective: Discuss oral hygiene strategies for blind people. Methods: A bibliographic review was developed following the PRISMA 2020 methodology, in the databases PubMed, Mediagraphic, Redalyc, Scielo Dialnet and Lilacs, to answer the guiding question: What are the most relevant criteria in oral hygiene strategies for blind people?
Results: 20 articles were obtained for analysis, most of them studies on children and adolescents with visual impairment, with high indices of dental plaque and greater propensity to dental caries and periodontopathies. In this young population predisposing factors were identified such as inadequate understanding and management of the brushing technique, inability to identify asymptomatic oral disorders and dependence on caregivers for oral hygiene. The efficacy of oral health education techniques in patients with visual impairment using the Braile method and Audio Tactile Performance was evidenced.
Conclusions: People with visual impairment due to their physical limitations, lack of oral hygiene education, poor caregiver supervision and poor access to dental care, are at higher risk of presenting dental caries and periodontopathies, being necessary to provide them with more oral health education using their tactile and auditory skills.