Abstract

Background: Disability refers to any sensory, physical, mental, behavioral or developmental impairment that is suffered by an individual. The prevalence of disability and the number of persons with special needs, in general,is not precisely estimated in Saudi Arabia. The individuals with special needs are the group of persons, who obtain less care. Oral health and caring of teeth for those persons are significant, as they cannot perform it by themselves.
Methodology: The cross-sectional study was performed using an online survey instrument. Participation was voluntary. A total of 114 participants completed the questionnaire.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 28.4 ± 6.8 (mean ± SD) years with a range of 17–45 years. The male represented 70.2% of the participants, while the female represented 29.8%. Among the participants, 43% were with special needs and 57% were not, 45.6% of the participants had excellent knowledge, and 54.4% had poor knowledge. The correlation between knowledge and gender was (p-value = 0.02), and education level was (p-value = 0.006), and income was (p-value = 0.01) and being a person with special needs (p-value = 0.001).
Conclusion: Low level of knowledge was found among the participants. Gender, level of education, income, and having a person with special needs were the affecting factors of knowledge.

Key words: Special needs individuals, Oral health, Disability in KSA.