A Questionnaire Survey on the Actual Conditions of Dental Patients with Special Needs Who Have Epilepsy

Purpose：The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual conditions of epilepsy and the control of epileptic seizures of dental patients with special needs.<br>Subjects and Methodology：The subjects were special needs dental patients from University Hospital “A”, and the questionnaire survey was performed from November 2013 to December 2014. We requested the guardians of the patients to answer the survey questions in a face-to-face interview. The questions included：1）whether the patient had been diagnosed with epilepsy；2）at what age the patient was diagnosed；3）the frequency of the patient’s epileptic seizures；4）the symptoms of the patient’s seizures；and 5）whether the patient had suffered any grand mal seizures （convulsions and loss of consciousness with their seizures）within the last year.<br>Results：During the survey period 188 subjects were sampled （mean age 28.6 years, SD 10.9）. Of these, 106 patients （56.4％）had been diagnosed. The group of patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities （SMID）and those with mental retardation （MR）represented a significantly higher proportion than the group with autistic spectrum disorder （ASD）and Down’s Syndrome （DS）disabilities.<br>Those diagnosed with epilepsy had a mean age of 5.7 years （SD 6.1）, and there were 60 subjects （60.0％）who had been diagnosed by the age of four years old. There were significant differences by disability, with the SMID and MR groups diagnosed at a younger age, and the ASD and DS groups diagnosed at an older age.<br>There were 15 patients who were currently experiencing more than one seizure per day and they accounted for 14.2％ of those with epilepsy. At the other end of the spectrum, there were 11 patients who had never had even one seizure. In other words, there were 95 patients who had epilepsy, because the ILAE defines that epilepsy patients must have had at least one epileptic seizure.<br>The most frequent symptom （multiple answers allowed）was tonic-clonic seizure （54 patients, 50.9％）.<br>There were 26 patients who had experienced seizures with convulsions and loss of consciousness, and they accounted for 13.8％ of all subjects. Of those, there were four patients who had not been diagnosed with epilepsy.