Dental Care and Children with Special Health Care Needs: A Population-Based Perspective

Abstract

This paper grew out of a project reviewing progress in children's oral health since the Surgeon General's Report (SGR) on Oral Health. It includes a summary of advances in national surveillance of children with special health care needs (CSHCN), and presents more recent data on unmet dental care need among CSHCN. To that end, we used the 2006-National Survey of CSHCN to determine the prevalence of unmet dental care need among CSHCN and to compare this within subgroups of CSHCN, as well as to children without special health care needs, and to results from the previous iteration of this survey.We found that dental care remains the most frequently cited unmet health need for CSHCN. More CSHCN had unmet need for non-preventive than preventive dental care. CSHCN who are teens, poorer, uninsured, had insurance lapses, or more severely affected by their condition had higher adjusted odds of unmet dental care needs. CSHCN who were both low-income and severely affected had 13.4 times the adjusted odds of unmet dental care need.In summary, CSHCN are more likely to be insured and to receive preventive dental care at equal or higher rates than children without SHCN. Nevertheless, CSHCN, particularly lower income and severely affected, are more likely to report unmet dental care need compared to unaffected children. Despite advances in knowledge about dental care among CSHCN, unanswered questions remain. We provide recommendations towards obtaining additional data and facilitating dental care access for this vulnerable population.

Educational intervention on the plaque score among hearing impaired children

“…Individuals with special health care needs may be at an increased risk for oral diseases throughout their lifetime. [14] Physical disability such as HI can result in difficulties to reach an ideal health status of the teeth.…”

Avaliação das condições periodontais e de higiene bucal em escolares com transtornos neuropsicomotores

“…Apesar da necessidade de um acompanhamento odontológico adequado, a OMS (Organização Mundial da Saúde) relata que apenas 3% da população total de deficientes tem acesso aos tratamentos odontológicos. Corroborando com esta informação, estudos revelam que as crianças com comprometimento físico ou mental mais severo têm ainda menos acesso aos serviços odontológicos 2,5 . Isto ocorre devido à desinformação e à falta de comprometimento dos responsáveis, ao custo do tratamento, à presença de barreiras arquitetônicas, que dificultam o acesso aos serviços, e à ausência de capacitação profissional e grupos de estudo que discutam métodos facilitadores de prevenção e tratamento odontológico voltado para esses pacientes [5][6][7] .…”

Oral Health Care for Children With Developmental Disabilities

“…Examples include children with autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, craniofacial anomalies, and other health conditions. As a group, children with developmental disabilities are more likely to have unmet dental needs than are typically developing children 2,3 and are considered to be at greater risk of developing dental disease. The reasons include frequent use of medicine high in sugar, dependence on a caregiver for regular oral hygiene, reduced clearance of foods from the oral cavity, impaired salivary function, preference for carbohydrate-rich foods, a liquid or puréed diet, and oral aversions.…”