Is Visual Pedagogy Effective in Improving Cooperation towards Oral Hygiene and Dental Care in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Araxi Balian, Silvia Cirio, Claudia Salerno, Thomas Gerhard Wolf, Guglielmo Campus and Maria Grazia Cagetti
Additional contact information
Araxi Balian: Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Science, University of Milan, Via Beldiletto 1, 20142 Milan, Italy
Silvia Cirio: Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Science, University of Milan, Via Beldiletto 1, 20142 Milan, Italy
Claudia Salerno: Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Science, University of Milan, Via Beldiletto 1, 20142 Milan, Italy
Thomas Gerhard Wolf: Department of Restorative, Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry, University of Bern, Freiburgstrasse 7, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Guglielmo Campus: Department of Restorative, Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry, University of Bern, Freiburgstrasse 7, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Maria Grazia Cagetti: Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Science, University of Milan, Via Beldiletto 1, 20142 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 2, 1-24

Abstract: Visual pedagogy has emerged as a new approach in improving dental care in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This paper aimed to evaluate and assess the scientific evidence on the use of visual pedagogy in improving oral hygiene skills and cooperation during dental care in children with ASDs. The review protocol was registered on the PROSPERO Register (CRD42020183030). Prospective clinical studies, randomized trials, interruptive case series, before and after comparison studies, and cross-sectional studies following the PRISMA guideline were searched in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar using ad hoc prepared search strings. The search identified 379 papers, of which 342 were excluded after title and abstract evaluation, and 37 full-text papers were analyzed. An additional four papers were added after consulting reference lists. Eighteen papers were disregarded; 23 were finally included, and their potential bias was assessed using ROB-2 and ROBINS-I tools. The wide heterogenicity of the studies included does not allow for conclusive evidence on the effectiveness of visual pedagogy in oral hygiene skills and dental care. Nevertheless, a significant and unilateral tendency of the overall outcomes was found, suggesting that visual pedagogy supports ASD children in improving both oral hygiene skills and cooperation during dental care.

Keywords: visual pedagogy; autism spectrum disorders; dental setting; oral hygiene; dental care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/2/789/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/2/789/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:2:p:789-:d:482578

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().