Lack of assent to dental examination in children with intellectual disabilities: Dentists’ practices in Europe and ethical issues

Abstract

Aim(1) To determine the repartition of criteria which can be considered as marks of lack of assent by the child with intellectual disabilities from the dentist's point of view and whether that influences the decision to examine the patient or not. (2) To explain the decision of practitioners and determine the ethical implications of these practices.MethodsAn anonymous and structured questionnaire was distributed online using the scenario of a 9‐year‐old child with moderate cognitive impairment with eight different oppositional behaviours. The practitioners were asked about their perception of the patient's lack of assent and about their decision to perform the dental examination or not.ResultsThe proportion of them who performed a dental examination despite the patient's refusal represented between 13% and 28.8% of the population of respondents.ConclusionThere was an ambivalence among the practitioners who carried out a dental consultation when children were uncooperative. They adopted a teleological point of view. It calls for us to reflect on the ethical principles of autonomy and beneficence.