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About 2 per cent of children are estimated to have an intellectual disability. The cause of the condition is unknown in at least 50 per cent of cases.
A severe neurodevelopmental disorder mostly affecting girls.
No validated oral health-related quality of life (OHRQOL) instrument currently exists for those with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities and who communicate non-verbally. This qualitative study aimed to explore the domains that were important to the oral health-related quality of life in individuals with Rett syndrome.
The Rett Syndrome Behaviour Questionnaire (RSBQ) describes behavioural and emotional features. This study investigated total RSBQ score trajectories and their clustering, and for trajectory groups, relationships with genotype and mobility, weight-for-age z scores, and seizure frequency.
In children with Rett syndrome, this study aimed to (1) describe gross motor skill trajectories; and (2) analyse the influences of genetic variant and comorbidities. This was a prospective longitudinal study conducted at the Danish National Center for Rett Syndrome 2008 to 2022. The Rett Syndrome Gross Motor Scale (RSGMS) was administered, and clinical data collected at each visit.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are varied in their nature and presentation. Barriers to oral healthcare are reported in studies of general populations with IDD but these may not reflect the barriers experienced by individuals with rare disorders such as Rett syndrome.
Principal Research Fellow
If there’s one thing modern researchers and health professionals now understand, it’s that for so many diseases and conditions affecting children and adolescents, early intervention is crucial.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities are heterogeneous in aetiology and presentation, and one cannot make assumptions about the oral health barriers of those with Rett syndrome (RTT) based on findings from generic studies. This study investigated caregivers' perceptions regarding access to dental care for those with RTT, and associations of dental treatments received by those with RTT with their caregivers' perceived value of oral health and perception of their own as well as their daughter's dental anxiety.
Rett syndrome is associated with severe functional impairments and many comorbidities, each in urgent need of treatments. Mutations in the MECP2 gene were identified as causing Rett syndrome in 1999. Over the past 20 years there has been an abundance of preclinical research with some studies leading to human clinical trials.