Investigating Barriers to Promoting Oral Health in Students with Down Syndrome from a Mothers' Perspective: A Qualitative Content Analysis

Down syndrome is a common genetic disorder in which, due to the high prevalence of developmental, anatomical, and functional disorders associated with the oral cavity, it causes problems in maintaining oral hygiene. This study aimed to investigate the barriers to studentschr('39') oral health with Down syndrome from the perspective of their mothers.

In this qualitative study, in order to explain the barriers in promoting the oral health of students with Down syndrome from the perspective of their mothers, based on goal-based sampling, 21 semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to analyze the content of the interview. We analyzed interviews by Graneheimor and  Lundman qualitative approaches.

According to motherschr('39') experiences, their childrenchr('39')s disorders can be an obstacle to achieving good oral health. From the data analysis, the three main themes are "the effects of general health status, the effects of instruction and learning, problems in receiving dental health care services." Moreover, six sub-themes were extracted: "General Health, Oral and Dental malformations, Mother learning, learning of people with Down syndrome, Problems with Down Syndrome People, and Service receiving problems.”

Given that these childrenchr('39')s illness is an essential obstacle to receiving dental services, stakeholders in planning should pay special attention to providing dental services to these children.