Oral pathologies in migrants: the experience of the “PROTECT” project in 3023 patients

Introduction: The number of people with migrant status living in Europe is proliferating.Most of the refugees in Italy come from war zones, and many of them denounce having been victimsof persecutory acts in their country of origin. Highly cultured migrant populations have shown betterresults and oral health behaviour than those who were poorly cultured. The PROTECT project aimedto build a network for the early management of head and neck pathologies among refugees andmigrants, promoting the dissemination of correct information about the prevention and treatment ofthese pathologies. Materials and methods: A national cross-sectional study among the refugees andmigrant population in the Lazio region, Italy, from February 2018 to September 2021 was performed.The oral health of 3023 participants was investigated within a network of 56 reception centres andcultural associations. Data collected via an oral health survey questionnaire gathered information onparticipants’ demographic factors, migration status and dental behaviours and clinical examinationsof the participants with the help of mouth mirrors, periodontal probes and artificial light. Results:The mean age was 31.6 13.1, and among all the subjects, 2058 were male (68.1%) and 965 werewomen (41.9%). Most participants were born in Nigeria, followed by Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia,Mali and Senegal. The overall oral pain prevalence was 48.2%. The prevalence of patients claimingpoor oral hygiene was 32.4%; 36.2% of the subjects consumed high amounts of sugar; and 26.7%saw their dentist for a check-up in the last year. At the clinical examination, 68.9% of patients hadcaries experience (considering decay of deciduous teeth, and caries of permanent teeth and teethwith fillings), with 32.2% showing pulpal involvement. Low levels of oral hygiene were also foundat the clinical examination, with 46.5% of patients presenting plaque and calculus. The trend of theDMFT index was found to be 5.41. Good periodontal health (CPI = 0) was present in approximately33.5% of patients. The CPI = 1 index reported bleeding from gingivitis in 37% of patients; tartar wasfound in 27% of patients (CPI = 2). The percentage of patients with CPI = 3 was 3.6%. Just over half(52.2%) of the migrants examined had malocclusion, and only 0.7% had a malocclusion in treatment.Conclusions: The goal to be achieved is to develop education and prevention programs for head–neckdiseases, and perhaps even more. The first step towards this goal can be removing the obstaclesmigrants encounter in accessing health care.