Oral health services within community-based organizations for young children with special health care needs

Oral Care for Children with Special Healthcare Needs in Dentistry: A Literature Review

Oral health is a very important aspect of general health, especially for vulnerable groups such as children with special healthcare needs. It is important to provide appropriate oral care in order to promote quality of life and good health for everyone, especially for children with special healthcare needs. Method: We reviewed the recent literature to collect knowledge regarding the delivery of quality oral care to children with special healthcare needs. We also explored some of the treatment management options that could address the needs of these children when attending dental clinics. Result: Unfortunately, we noted significant inequalities with issues related to oral health among those children. This situation often results in limitations to the activities of daily living for these children. There is therefore a need for much-needed advancements and refinements in oral healthcare to address the needs of children who have special healthcare needs. Conclusions: Providing children with special healthcare needs with high-quality dental care may necessitate active liaisons with healthcare facilitators and will require work across professions to make certain that these children’s oral health is also prioritized. Coordinated efforts by dental professionals are needed to provide dental health education and preventive interventions for these children.

Factors affecting provision of oral health care for people with special health care needs: A systematic review

Background

Special health care needs (SHCNs) individuals experience higher levels of dental problems including accessing oral health (OH) facilities. Improving standard of OH care in SHCNs requires identifying barriers and enablers. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review of prior researches to identify OH care barriers and enablers for SHCN individuals.

Methods

Electronic searching was conducted systematically in PubMed and Cochrane databases. The PICOS parameters were formulated for the inclusion of studies, and the PRISMA method was used to select the articles. Two reviewers independently screened the articles for eligibility and to minimise the risk of bias in the studies and also searched the contents of key articles, quality of methodology, outcomes and reference lists of all the studies included.

Results

A total of 1316 (PubMed 956, Cochrane 360) studies were found initially and after title and abstract screening and also removal of duplication, reviewers selected 53 papers from PubMED and 19 articles from Cochrane to go through full articles and led to the final confirmation of 21 studies. Common challenges included lack of OH knowledge and awareness, difficulty in accessing treatment, transportation problem, treatment cost, and lack of inter-professional collaboration for specialized services. Potential solutions included OHE training and services for patients and caregivers, easy access to dental services, specialized dental practitioners and use of a combination of expertise to meet the demands of SHCN individuals.

Conclusion

This brief analysis will establish dental obstacles to the provision of information to policymakers for SHCN population at organizational, individuals and policy levels. It will help in effective planning for providing and improving OH care quality in caregivers.

Provision of dental services for vulnerable groups: a scoping review on children with special health care needs

Background

The provision of dental services for children with special health care needs (CSHCN) needs to be considered by policymakers. This study is aimed to explore the determinant factors affecting dental and oral services provision for this vulnerable group.

Methods

A review was conducted applying the 9-steps approach. Five scientific databases of PUBMED, SCOPUS, Web of Science and PROQUEST and EMBASE were searched up to 10.07.2021, applying appropriate keywords. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the extracted data, and a conceptual map was developed according to JBI manual for evidence synthesis.

Results

From the abstracts of the 136 articles that fulfilled the inclusion criteria, 56 articles were included. Five main themes were identified as determinants affecting the provision of dentistry services for CSHCN, including needs assessment, policy advice, oral health interventions, providers’ perception and access barriers. According to the developed conceptual map, assessing the needs of CSHCN can lead to particular policy advice. Regarding the policies, appropriate oral health interventions can be presented. These interventions, along with providers’ perception about service delivery to CSHCN and the barriers to access them, determine the provision of dentistry services for CSHCN.

Conclusions

An effective needs assessment of CSHCN and their parents/carers can lead to evidence-informed policymaking and applicable policy advice according to the needs. Then policymakers should develop interventions to improve the community’s health literacy, as well as support the seeking behaviours for appropriate services. Policymakers should also consider how to limit the barriers to accessing oral and dental health by CSHCN to decrease disparities.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-07293-4.

Considerations for Protective Stabilization in Community General Dental Practice for Adult Patients with Special Healthcare Needs

Protective stabilization (PS) is a method of medical restraint used for behavior management for children and adults with special needs for dental care. With the increase in availability and options for behavior management techniques, PS has become less popular and more controversial. This scoping review analyzes the use of PS for dental care for adults with special needs within the literature.

METHODS

A review of publications between 1990 and 2020 was conducted in Ovid Medline, Embase, and Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source using the search terms as follows: "protective stabilization," "dentistry," "restraint," "patient positioning," and "immobilization," with Boolean operators "AND" and "OR." Articles were screened by title and abstract and included by full read review with consensus from the research team.

RESULTS

A total of 298 articles were reviewed and 29 were included as part of the scoping review. The articles include original research, policy guidelines, and clinical commentary reviews.

CONCLUSION

There is variable evidence regarding the use of PS as a method of behavioral management for adults with special needs. It is less popular for use due to improvements in alternative methods such as pharmacologic intervention and general anesthesia. PS still has applicable use among this population and is dependent on patient and parental consent, patient selection and safety, and clinician training.

Oral Care Experiences and Challenges for Children with Down Syndrome: Reports From Caregivers

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the oral care experiences and challenges encountered by children with Down syndrome. Methods: Participants were 372 parents of five- to 14-year-olds with Down syndrome. Parents completed a 48-item questionnaire designed by the authors to elicit information about oral care in the home and dental office. Descriptive statistics were used to examine oral care variables. Results: Parents reported difficulty across almost all oral care variables, including oral care in the home, oral care at the dentist, and access to oral care. Approximately one-third of parent respondents reported that toothbrushing was difficult and brushing occurred four or fewer days a week. Over half of the respondents reported that it was difficult to have a dental professional clean their child's teeth, uncooperative behaviors and sensory sensitivities increased in the office, and those behaviors and sensitivities made care challenging. Most respondents reported having a dental home for their child, that it was difficult locating their dentist, and that finances limited visits. Conclusions: Children with Down syndrome experience difficulties and barriers to care in both the home and dental office settings.

Efficacy, tolerability, and safety of an innovative medical device for improving oral accessibility during oral examination in special-needs patients: A multicentric clinical trial

Background

People with special needs have high unmet oral healthcare needs, partly because dentists find it difficult to access their oral cavity. The Oral Accessibility Spatula aims to improve oral accessibility. This prospective multicenter interventional open-label non-randomized patient-self-controlled trial assessed the ability of the spatula to improve the oral accessibility of special-needs patients during dental examinations.

Methods

The cohort was a convenience sample of minor and adult patients with special needs due to physical, intellectual, and/or behavioral disorders who underwent dental check-up/treatment in five French tertiary hospitals/private clinics in 2016–2018 and evinced some (Venham-Score = 2–4) but not complete (Venham-Score = 5) resistance to oral examination. After inclusion, patients underwent oral examination without the spatula and then immediately thereafter oral examination with the spatula. Primary outcome was Oral Accessibility Score (0–12 points; higher scores indicate visualization and probing of the tooth sectors). Secondary outcomes were patient toleration (change in Venham-Score relative to first examination), safety, and Examiner Satisfaction Score (0–10; low scores indicate unsatisfactory examination).

Results

The 201 patients were mostly non-elderly adults (18–64 years, 65%) but also included children (21%), adolescents (11%), and aged patients (3%). One-quarter, half, and one-quarter had Venham-Score = 2, 3, and 4 at inclusion, respectively. The spatula significantly improved Oral Accessibility Score (4.8 to 10.8), Venham-Score (3.1 to 2.6), and Examiner Satisfaction Score (3.4 to 7.2) (all p<0.001). There were no severe spatula-related adverse events.

Conclusion

The spatula significantly improved oral access, was safe and well-tolerated by the patients, and markedly improved oral examination quality.

[Rare diseases and their clinical oral manifestations in two Hospitals in Yaoundé]

Introduction

Les maladies rares ont pour certaines des manifestations orales. Celles-ci sont souvent sous-étudiées; ce qui contribue à limiter l'offre de soins bucco-dentaires pour cette catégorie de patients. Le but est de déterminer les aspects épidémiologiques et cliniques des manifestations bucco-dentaires dans les maladies rares dans notre milieu.

Méthodes

Nous avons effectué une étude transversale et descriptive sur une durée de 7 mois, dans deux hôpitaux de référence de Yaoundé: les informations ont été recueillies des dossiers médicaux, de l'interrogatoire des parents ou tuteurs et de l'examen bucco-dentaire des patients. Le seuil de significativité considéré pour p < 0,05.

Résultats

Les manifestations orales sur maladies rares sont variables et fonction du groupe d'affections, de la denture, et ont souvent un retentissement fonctionnel. Elles étaient présentes dans 97,2% de nos patients. En denture temporaire (59,4%), c'était plus des anomalies de forme et de position dentaire (conicité dentaire 7 cas/22, soit 32%), et en denture permanente des lésions carieuses (7 cas/10 soit 70%) et des anomalies de structure dentaire (4 cas/10 d'usure dentaire). Un lien significatif existait entre le type de denture, l'anomalie de structure (p=0,001) et de nombre (p=0,018). Les difficultés à la mastication (p=0,023) et à la succion (p=0,033) étaient liées aux groupes de maladies rares.

Conclusion

Les lésions orales dans les maladies rares bien que présentes dans notre milieu, sont souvent négligées. Les soins bucco-dentaires devraient être intégrés dans le paquet minimum des activités des formations sanitaires et rendus gratuits ou financièrement accessibles à ces patients handicapés ou présentant des besoins spécifiques.

Oral Health for US Children with Special Health Care Needs

Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) are a vulnerable population subgroup, but little is known about their oral health, particularly regarding the prevalence and cause of tooth decay. This lack of knowledge is a barrier to progress in terms of developing evidence-based clinical interventions and policies aimed at promoting oral health in CSHCN. This article reviews the oral health literature pertaining to CSHCN, identifies critical knowledge gaps, highlights future research opportunities, and extends clinical recommendations to pediatric health care providers.