Abstract
Background
approximately 285 million people are visually impaired, oral health care to people with visual impairment differs due to the conditions’ limitations, which may affect the individuals’ dental care.
Objective
to evaluate the access and satisfaction of people with visual impairment to oral health services and their relationship with the economic condition.
Method
this is a cross-sectional quantitative study involving people with visual impairment of an Institute for the Blind. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain data, where variables were: access to oral health services, satisfaction and socioeconomic status. After the data collection, the data were tabulated by Epi Info 7.2.
Results
of the total number of respondents (n = 72), 65.28% were males, with a mean age of 34.6 years. Regarding access to oral health services, 56.9% of the interviewees reported that the last visit to the dentist was less than one year, and the majority (84.3%) classified the treatment of the last consultation with good or very good. Access to oral health services occurred in both the public and private systems, regardless of the economic class of the respondent (p = 0.174).
Conclusion
in spite of the positive results, access and dental care for people with visual impairment requires the creation and expansion of inclusion and accessibility policies.
Keywords:
vision disorders; access to health services; social class