Perspectives of the public dental workforce on the dental management of people with special needs (original) (raw)
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Special Care in Dentistry, 2021
Aims: To investigate barriers experienced by clinicians treating individuals with special needs in the Australian public dental system. Methods and Results: Oral health professionals working at primary care clinics in the public dental system were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews or focus groups to discuss the challenges they faced in managing patients with special needs. Qualitative methods, employing inductive thematic analysis, revealed This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. 3 two primary barriers: (1) clinicians lacked confidence in their ability to treat patients with special needs because of insufficient training and experience, and difficulties obtaining information about their patients, and (2) barriers within the public dental system, including inadequate funding, equipment and facilities, and productivity pressures prevented clinicians from being able to provide the care patients required. The priority and understanding of the oral health for these individuals within the public dental system and wider disability sector was also raised. Conclusion: A perceived lack of training and experience in managing individuals with special needs was a barrier to treating patients with special needs. Other significant barriers were underresourcing of the public dental system and a lack of priority and understanding regarding oral health amongst carers of individuals with special needs and other health professionals.
Access to public oral health care by special needs patients: the dentist’s perspective
2014
Objective: To examine, from the dentists’ perspective, the access of special needs patients (SNP) to oral health care in the Unified Health System. Methods: Cross-sectional and quantitative study, performed in 2011 by means of interviews based on semi-structured questionnaires, carried out with dental surgeons at family primary healthcare units of a capital city in Brazil’s northeast region. Study variables included sociodemographic factors, work conditions and data related to the access and utilization of dental care services by SNP. Data was analysed with proper statistics in SPSS 15. Results: Interviews were performed with 44 dentists, 36 (81.8%) of which regularly assisted SNP; 29 (65.9%) conducted only oral examination and oral hygiene instructions; and 5 (11.3%) conducted oral examination and referred the patients to specialties centers. Nine (20.5%) of them reported having attended a discipline, focused on that type of patient. The accessibility, caring and dental assistance ...
Portuguese Journal of Public Health
Objectives: This work attempted to determine the unmet dental treatment needs and self-reported barriers to continued care, in patients with special needs, attending a dental teaching hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean. Methods: A chart audit of patients who were planned for comprehensive treatment for the period from August 1, 2015 to July 31, 2017 was used to determine the types of treatment required for the sample of patients. Treatment was classified as either urgent, preventive, or restorative. Restorative treatment was further divided into operative, endodontic, periodontic, and prosthodontic treatment. Reasons for not returning to the clinic to complete planned treatment care were ascertained via a telephone interview. A non-parametric McNemar change test for related samples at an alpha level of 0.05 was used to compare planned treatment with completed treatment. Results: 34% of patients with special needs had comprehensive treatment plans developed for the period und...
Barriers in Providing Dental Care to Special Care Populations
Oral health needs for special care population is often neglected by parents/care takers and by dental professional which is weary but a true fact. Despite the recognition of the role of dental profession in providing oral care for these people with disabilities, many dentists show reluctance to accept these people as their patients, the reason for this reluctance are various barriers that lead to the development of negative attitude towards these populations. Despite of numerous advances in the field of dentistry in recent days, the oral health of the special care population remains poor. "Empathy is necessary ingredient in rendering quality dental care for the disabled person". Dental care of the disabled person should be aimed at developing empathy in the dental practitioners towards them. This article briefly explains various barriers in provision of dental care for special care population.
Preparedness and willingness of dental care providers to treat patients with special needs
Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dentistry, 2018
This study aimed to review the available literature about special needs dentistry, factors affecting treatment of patients with special needs, dental education, and the preparedness and willingness of dental care providers to treat patients with special needs. The study also aimed to assess the validity and reliability of available scales that measure the preparedness of dental care providers to treat patients with special needs. Forty studies from esteemed refereed journals were reviewed in this article. The topics in the study were relevant to special needs dentistry, Saudi Arabia, and dental care providers' perceptions of treating patients with special needs. Reviewed studies were extracted from several electronic databases, such as PubMed and Medline. Studies in Saudi Arabia about special needs dentistry and the preparedness of dental care providers to treat patients with special needs are scarce. Further research in this area needs to be conducted in Saudi Arabia.
Redefining dental care to serve patients with special health care needs: A review
International Journal of Oral Health Dentistry, 2020
Some of the most wonderful people are those who, cannot fit into a mould and so are the patients with special needs. The patients require medical, physical, psychological, or social situations that make it necessary for us to modify our normal dental routines in order to provide dental treatment for such individuals. These individuals include, but are not just limited to the people with developmental disabilities, complex medical problems, and significant physical limitations 1,2 alone. The population of these patients are reported to have higher rates of poor oral hygiene and thus having a greater incidence of gingivitis and periodontitis, and also dental caries, than for the others, falling in the mould of general population. This review article aims at describing various measures that can be taken for providing care to such individuals.
PLOS ONE, 2022
Introduction Individuals with special health care needs continue to experience difficulties with accessing regular dental care. This has largely been due to clinicians feeling they lack the training and experience to manage their needs. The aim of this study was to determine whether working closely with specialists in special need dentistry influenced the willingness of clinicians to treat patients with special needs. Materials and methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with specialists and clinicians involved in these mentoring initiatives. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to determine perspectives towards how this additional support influenced their willingness to treat individuals with special needs. Results The views of all participants towards these supports were positive with clinicians feeling it not only offered them opportunities to learn from the specialists, but also increased their willingness to treat individuals with special needs and the timeliness and quality of care they were able to provide. Likewise, despite some concerns about the inappropriate use of specialist support, the specialists felt these mentoring relationships offered many benefits including improving timely access to care and ensuring individuals were able to receive appropriate care. Conclusions Mentoring provided by specialists in special needs dentistry improved the willingness of clinicians to provide care for individuals with special health care needs. Supports such as
Oral Health for Patients with Special Needs: Evaluative Research of the Dental Specialties Centers
Portuguese Journal of Public Health
The Dental Specialties Centers (CEOs) were created within the context of the National Oral Health Policy, and the main function of these establishments is to serve as units of reference in secondary oral health care in the Brazilian national health system (SUS), and they must offer at least the services of stomatology, specialized periodontology, minor oral surgery, endodontics, and attendance to patients with special needs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of the CEOs in the mountain region of the Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, in the perspective of the patients with special needs care or their companion's satisfaction. Data were collected from 159 users by using a standardized self-applied individual semi-structured questionnaire. The results indicated a positive evaluation in most of the dimensions, except the accessibility dimension. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed between the services of the following dimensions of quality: accessibility, resoluteness, technical-scientific quality, efficiency, efficacy, and acceptability. The analysis of qualitative data, through the discourse of the collective subject technique (DCS) and social representations, showed five central ideas about users' satisfaction and dissatisfaction with CEOs services (humanized health care, resoluteness of the service, professional competence, infrastructure and organization of the service, access to the services). In conclusion, most patients with special needs care and their companions were satisfied with specialized dental centers (SDC) services, although there were significant differences among SDCs services in relation to individuals' satisfaction.
Australian Dental Journal, 2016
Background: Special Needs Dentistry (SND) has been recognized as a dental specialty in Australia since 2003 but there have been no studies addressing the profile of patients for specialist care. The purpose of this study is to identify, via referrals received, the profile of patients and quality of referrals at the largest public SND unit in Victoria, Australia. Methods: All referrals received over a 6-month period (1 January-30 June 2013) by the integrated SND unit (ISNU) were reviewed prior to allocation to the outpatient clinic (OP), domiciliary (DOM) or general anaesthetic (GA) services. Results: Six-hundred and eighty-eight referrals were received with the majority for the OP clinic (68.3%), followed by DOM (22.4%) and GA services (9.3%) (v 2 = 360.2, P < 0.001). A referral may have specified more than one special needs condition with the most common category being those who were medically compromised (81.7%). The reasons for referral included lack of compliance (27.2%), further management due to multiple medical conditions or GA services required (9.9%), or for multiple other reasons (62.9%). Conclusions: A diverse pattern of SND patients was referred to the ISNU with a majority of referrals having no specific referral reason cited, suggesting poor quality of referrals.