Social protection models and the right to dental care for people with disabilities

Abstract

Knowing and synthesizing expectations and recommendations on dental care as a right to oral health for people with disabilities (PwD) is essential to assist decision-makers. An integrative review was carried out, searching PubMed, Embase, LILACS, and VHL databases for articles published up to August 30, 2021. Term mining techniques were used via the Rayyan platform. Content analysis was based on welfare state theory. Sixteen articles were included. Expanding access was a need shared by all studies. The main expectations and recommendations were guaranteeing civil rights and reorienting the oral health care model (in the countries of liberal model); the need for professional qualification, systematic and free dental care, integration between services, multidisciplinary work and guaranteed financing (conservative model); qualification of infrastructure and workforce; and systemic articulation between care levels (social democratic model). We observed a complex and sometimes contradictory scenario of proposals, subject to indications with little potential for change, especially if we ignore contemporary challenges arising from economic crises and the welfare State that imply serious constraints to the models of social protection and the rights of PwD.