ABSTRACT

Year : 2022  |  Volume : 6  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 88

Poster Presentation: AB No: 56: Combined effect of Physiotherapy and Dental treatment on Drooling in Children with Developmental Disorders: A Pilot Study

Deepa Metgud, Richa Lahiri
KAHER Institute of Physiotherapy

Correspondence Address:

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/2456-7787.361102

Purpose: To study the combined effect of physiotherapy and dental treatment on drooling in children with developmental disorders using Drooling Impact Scale and 5-Minute Drooling Quotient. Relevance: Drooling is the involuntary, passive spillage of saliva due to inability to handle oral secretions, normally occurring in infants and young children. It is considered abnormal to have problems with saliva control beyond the age of 4 years. Physiotherapy treatment including oral motor stimulation has been regularly used to decrease drooling but its effect along with dental treatment is unknown. Participants: 10 children with developmental disorders in the age group of 4–12 years with a complaint of drooling were recruited from the paediatric out-patient department and child development centre of a tertiary care hospital and special schools in Belagavi. Methods: A pre-post pilot study was conducted to study the combined effect of physiotherapy and dental treatment. Pre and post-treatment outcomes were taken by drooling impact scale and 5- minute drooling quotient. The physiotherapy treatment consisted of oral motor stimulation thrice a week for 4 weeks and the dental treatment included oral prophylaxis followed by fluoride application. Analysis: Data was analyzed using paired sample t-test. Results: The results indicated a significant improvement in drooling with a mean difference of 11.20 ± 4.87 and p-value=0.001 on the drooling impact scale and mean difference of 23.66 ± 6.07 and p-value= 0.001 on the 5- minute drooling scale. Conclusion: This study showed that combination of physiotherapy and dental treatment is useful for the treatment of drooling in children with developmental disorders and the effect must be studied in a larger sample size. Implications: Physiotherapy treatment combined with dental treatment can be helpful to reduce the stigma related to drooling as well as feeding difficulties in children with developmental disorders.

Keywords: Physiotherapy treatment, Dental treatment, Drooling