الفهرس 
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Abstract
Children with disabilities and other special needs present unique challenges for oral health professionals in the planning and execution of dental treatment. The oral health of children with special health care needs is influenced by various socio-demographic factors, including their living conditions and severity of the impairment.
Thus the present study was conducted to find the solution for the prevention of oral diseases and implementation of oral health promotion strategies to improve oral health status of a group of autistic Egyptian children. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a specially designated educational and preventive program, assess the behavior of autistic children and to improve the oral health knowledge, attitudes and practices of caregivers of these children.
The current study was conducted in 3 consecutive phases between 2015 and 2017.
I-Phase One included:-
1-Ethical considerations.
2-learning session.
3-Sample selection.
4-Children selection.
5-Data collection.
6-Children behavior assessment.
7-Children examination.
8-Salivary sampling.
9-CRA.
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Summary
ll-Phase two included:-
The preventive measures based on that caries risk obtained from phase 1 and the investigator’s clinical judgment were used to design the preventive program for each child. The preventive program was conducted by the principal investigator with the help of caregivers of children and an educational program was designed to improve the oral health knowledge, attitudes and practices of caregivers of these children.
III-Phase three included:-
At the end of 12 months of the preventive program all data for the Cariogram parameters was collected again in a similar manner to phase I. Then all data were analyzed and the effectiveness of the preventive program was evaluated.
Results of the current study showed that:
A statistical significance difference was found in Frankl`s behavior scale between the three periods of testing (children showed favorable behavior change in follow up visits).
No statistical significance difference was found in def mean values between the three time factors (Base line, mid and final).
There was a statistical significance difference in plaque mean values between the three time factors (Base line, mid and final).
Regarding caries activity, a statistically significance difference was found between before and after the preventive program.
On assessing dental knowledge of caregivers before and after the program, results showed that a statistically significance difference was found between the percentage of caregivers in answering the questions with right answers before and after the program.