Description of the difference in plaque index between normal and autistic children age 6-12 years

Background: Oral hygiene status can be seen from the plaque index contained in the mouth. Children aged 6-12 years are school age, they can be taught about oral health care independently. The research objective was to obtain data about description of the differences in plaque index between normal and autistic children aged 6-12 years in Yayasan Autisme Ourdream, Lembaga Pendidikan Autisme Prananda, and SDN Banjarsari in the Bandung city. Materials and Methods: This study was a descriptive analytic. The population was all the students at SDN Banjarsari and autistic children aged 6-12 years in both the foundation. Samplings were collected by simple random sampling, the number of samples obtained normal and autistic children each were 21 persons. Clinical examinations for plaque index using Patient Hygiene Performance (PHP) index of Podshadley and Halley. The data were analyzed with independent t-test. Results: The results showed an average of plaque index normal and autistic children aged 6-12 years was 2.06 with a standard deviation of 0.573 and 3.23 with a standard deviation of 0.473. Conclusion: The conclusions showed that there were significant differences in plaque index between normal and autistic children, these values are equally moderate category by Patient Hygiene Performance (PHP) index of Podshadley and Halley.