Dentistry for Children with Special Needs Flashcards
What are ‘special needs’?
- Huge range of diagnoses and disabilities
- Individuals who rewquire special help or care
In children , what are the main causes of disability? (2)
Genetic and congenital
What % of the paediatric population have special needs?
4.3%
Who might look after the teeth of children with a mild disability? (3)
- General dental service (enhanced capitation fee)
- Non-specialist led public dental service
- Specialist service for access to treatment planning or advanced behaviour management
Who might look after the teeth of children with a moderate/severe disability? (3)
- Specialist led PDS
- Hospital dental service
- Shared care HDS/GDP or PDS/GDP
What are possible dental implications for children with speical needs? (5)
- Fewer teeth (because there can be delayed care)
- More untreated dental caries (can be due to sugary medication)
- Greater prevalence of periodontal disease
- Dental fear and anxiety (this may have been precipitated by medical appointments rather than dental appointments)
- More barriers to delivery of dental care
What are the impacts of dental diseadse in children with special needs? (5)
- Delayed diagnosis (they might have a different perception of pain or may be due to the parents having difficulty in accessing the right level of care for them)
- Delayed management (can be difficult to look in their mouth)
- Takes more multidisciplinary planning
- Greater risk of pain/sepsis (because there is a delay in getting care)
- Reduced quality of life
What questions might you need to ask yourself when thinking about the impact of dental disease on children with special needs? (5)
- What is getting in the way of this child’s wellbeing?
- Do I have everything I need to help this child or young person?
- What can I do now to help this child or young person?
- What can my agency/profession do to help this child or young person?
- What additional help, if any, may be needed from others?
What prevention can we encourage for a patient with special needs? (4)
- Ensure regular dental visits
- Provision of good mouth care
- Safe eating and drinking habits
- High carues risk?
What are out dental aims for a child with special needs to support with normal oral function? (3)
- Eating
- Speech development
- Promote self esteem:
- Maintain good appearance
- Confidence to smile
Saliva/drooling can affect a lot of children with special needs. What are the problems of this? (5)
- Undiagnosed caries
- Social embarrassment
- Parental upset
- Skin irritation
- Aspiration risk
What are the ways we can help patients to support them in the management or normal oral function? (3)
Speech and language therapy:
- Improve lip seal
- Improve swallow
Pharmacology:
- Scopolamine/hyoscine patch
- Botox injections
Surgical
What are possible barriers to oral care for children with special needs? (6)
- Manual dexterity issues
- Involuntary movements
- Oral aversion
- Gag reflex issues/patients with high aspiration risk
- Challenging behaviour (child attending CAMHS)
- Sensory issues
What are possible barriers to oral care for children with special needs in relation to their parents? (6)
- Manual dexterity issues
- Anxiety/fear
- Revulsion/aversion to bodily fluids
- Unable to access oral cavity
- Exhaustion
- Not a priority/lack of time
Give examples of types of disability? (4)
- Physical
- Medical
- Sensory
- Mental
- There is overlap in some of these categories and some patient’s will fall into more than one
Give examples of physical disabilities? (3)
- CP, Spina bifida, muscular dystrophy
Give examples of medical disabilities? (3)
- Cardiac defect
- Oncology
- Bleeding disorders
Give examples of sensory disabilities? (3)
- Blind
- Deaf
- Autistic spectrum disorder
Give examples of mental disabilities? (2)
- Impaired learning ability
- ASD
What is the most common physical ability in childhood?
- Cerebral palsy
What does cerebral palsy affect?
It affects movement and posture
How does cerebral palsy occur?
- It occurs from brain damage before, during or shortly after birth
Apart from defects in movement and posture, how else might cerebral palsty affect the body? (5)
- People wiht CP may also have visual, hearing, learning, speech and epilepsy
How can cerebral palsy be classified?
- Can be classified purely by how it affects the limbs or it can be classified by other things e.g. spastic, athetoid, ataxic etc
How is someone with monoplegic cerebral palsy affected?
- Involves only one limb
How is someone with paraplegic cerebral palsy affected?
- Involves lower extremities
How is someone with hemiplegic cerebral palsy affected?
- Involved one upper and one lower limb on same side
How is someone with double hemiplegic cerebral palsy affected?
- Involves alll limbs but mainly arms
How is someone with diplegic cerebral palsy affected?
- Involves all limbs but mainly legs
How is someone with quadriplegic cerebral palsy affected?
- Involves all limbs equally
Give examples of dental features of cerebral palsy? (10)
- Poor oral hygiene
- Gingival hyperplasia (esp if on epilepy or a medication that might cause it)
- Enamel hypoplasia
- Bruxism
- Maolcclusion
- Dental trauma
- Drooling/saliva
- Access
- Uncomfortable movements
- Enhanced gag reflex
Can be really challenging for people with cerebral plasy to brush their teeth. Hoe can we make this easier for them?
- We can take impressions of their hands and shape the toothbrush for them
People with cerebral palsy tend to have a head forward posture. Why is it very important when we are treating them that we do not try to change it?
- Because this is a posture that means they don’t swallow their saliva and end up with aspirations - so we treat them in a head neutral position
One possible barrier to regular dental attendence for children with special needs is that they may have other appointments. What is a solution to this problems?
- Collaborate and plan with other departments/professions
One possible barrier to regular dental attendence for children with special needs is that they may have challenging behavious/anxiety. What is a solution to this problems?
- Emphasise, be understanding, reassure support, appropriately acclimatise, risk assess, plan ahead
One possible barrier to regular dental attendence for children with special needs is parking/access to the building. What is a solution to this problems?
- Plan ahead