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Promoting Oral Health for Special Needs Patients

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Care Sciences & Services".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 9358

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Dr. Frederic Denis

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Odontology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Tours, 37000 Tours, France
2. Faculty of Dentistry, Nantes University, 44000 Nantes, France
3. A 75-05 Education, Ethics, Health, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Tours, 37000 Tours, France
Interests: public health; schizophrenia; oral health; oral health-related quality of life; mental health; disability
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

An estimated 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability. People with disabilities generally have higher levels of oral disease and unmet dental care needs. This Special Issue aims to encourage the promotion of early action to address behavioral determinants such as good diet and/or tooth brushing habits, while considering the increasingly important role of the oral microbiota in this approach. The promotion of oral health for people with disabilities also requires consideration of the dissemination of disability-specific communication materials and the training of people working with these materials. In this context, the promotion of the oral health of these populations can cover a number of interdependent areas such as the reinforcement of the initial pre- and post-graduate training of health professionals, person-centered actions aiming at inter- and trans-disciplinarity, the revision of care pathways and more generally of health policies towards these populations.

Dr. Frederic Denis
Guest Editor

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

disability
oral health
special needs
public health
dental health
oral health promotion

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

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2 pages, 279 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Promoting Oral Health for Patients with Special Needs

by Frédéric Denis, Hervé Becquet, Matthieu Renaud and Guillaume Savard

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(13), 6232; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136232 - 27 Jun 2023

Viewed by 964

Abstract

The problem of poor oral health among people with disabilities is common in many low-, middle- and high-income countries [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promoting Oral Health for Special Needs Patients)

Research

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13 pages, 1587 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identifying Persons with Special Healthcare Needs in Dentistry—Development and Validation of the French Case Mix Tool

by Denise Faulks, Marie-Sophie Bogner, Solenn Hamon, Caroline Eschevins and Bruno Pereira

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(4), 2997; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20042997 - 08 Feb 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1325

Abstract

Providing dental care for certain patient groups is complicated due to difficulties with cooperation, communication, health conditions, and social context, amongst others. The majority of dentists in France work within a public fee-per-item system. A new measure has been introduced providing a financial supplement to dentists for each episode of care for a patient with a severe disability. This supplement is justified by completion of the French Case Mix tool (FCM), a new measure designed to retrospectively identify episodes of dental care that have required adaptation and additional time or expertise. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and psychometric properties of the FCM. The content validity of the tool was improved at each round of pilot development, involving 392 patient encounters. Test–retest data at 2 weeks for 12 fictional patient treatment episodes were collected from 51 dentists. This phase confirmed inter- and intra-dentist reproducibility, criterion validity, and interpretability. Retrospective analysis of 4814 treatment episodes nationally demonstrated high reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity. Overall, the FCM showed high validity and good psychometric properties. However, the impact of providing a financial supplement on improving access to care for persons with special needs has yet to be evaluated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promoting Oral Health for Special Needs Patients)

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13 pages, 494 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Individualized Oral Health Care Training Provided to 6–16-Year-Old Psychiatric In-Patients—Randomized Controlled Study

by Benedikt Bock, Arndt Guentsch, Roswitha Heinrich-Weltzien, Christina Filz, Melanie Rudovsky and Ina M. Schüler

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(23), 15615; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315615 - 24 Nov 2022

Viewed by 1054

Abstract

Background: To assess the effect of individualized oral health care training (IndOHCT) administered to 6–16-year-old psychiatric in-patients on dental plaque removal. Methods: 74 in-patients with mental health disorders (49 males) aged 6–16 years with a mean age of 10.4 ± 2.3 years, were randomly divided into two equal groups. At the start of hospitalization, one calibrated dentist assessed the oral health status in the hospital setting. In-patients of the intervention group (IG) received IndOHCT, while those of the control group (CG) got an information flyer. Dental plaque was assessed by the Turesky modified Quigley-Hein-Index (TI) at the start (t0) and at the end of hospitalization before (t1a) and after (t1b) autonomous tooth brushing. Results: During hospitalisation, the TI was reduced in both groups (t0→t1a: IG = −0.1; CG = −0.2, p = 0.71). However, in-patients receiving IndOHCT achieved significantly higher plaque reduction rates than the controls when plaque values before and after autonomous tooth brushing were compared (t1a→t1b: IG = −1.0; CG = −0.8; p = 0.02). The effect size (ES) demonstrates the efficacy of IndOHCT (ES = 0.53), especially in children with mixed dentition (ES = 0.89). Conclusions: IndOHCT enabled hospitalized children and adolescents with mental health disorders to achieve a better plaque reduction by tooth brushing but failed to improve self-controlled routine oral hygiene. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promoting Oral Health for Special Needs Patients)

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14 pages, 753 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Oral Health Care of People with Down Syndrome in Germany

by Peter Schmidt, Laura C. Suchy and Andreas G. Schulte

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12435; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912435 - 29 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1909

Abstract

Background: Due to a dearth of information on preventive and supportive oral care for people with Down Syndrome (PDS) in Germany, caregivers of PDS were surveyed on the topic. Methods: An anonymized questionnaire was sent to the 610 members of the German Down Syndrome Association. The study was approved by the ethics committee of Witten/Herdecke University (# 165/2017). Results: The parents/caregivers of 207 PDS responded. These PDS were between 1 and 55 years old (mean age 24.4 years) and included 111 males and 96 females. At their first dental appointment, 40.7% (n = 82) had been younger than three years. Although 78.3% (n = 162) tooth brushed twice daily, only 30.9% (n = 64) brushed for 2–3 min; 84.0% (n = 135) did not use other dental hygiene products apart from toothbrushes. Age-specific differences were found: Although only 30.8% (n = 12) of PDS < 18 years (n = 39) independently performed dental self-care; this was 67.3% (n = 113) for PDS ≥ 18 years (n = 168). A statistically significant (p < 0.001; Chi-Square-Test) difference in toothbrush preferences emerged: While PDS < 18 years mainly used manual toothbrushes, PDS ≥ 18 years preferred electric toothbrushes. In contrast to 72.6% of PDS ≥ 18 years, only 51.3% of PDS < 18 years accepted most types of toothpaste. Conclusions: Age-dependent differences in tooth brushing behaviour became evident within the group of PDS in Germany. Hence, better age-specific, inter-professional dental prophylaxis concepts need to be developed and offered for all age groups of PDS. These concepts should include personalized check-up intervals and hands-on instruction in dental hygiene procedures by dental practitioners. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promoting Oral Health for Special Needs Patients)

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Other

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13 pages, 1063 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

Special Care Patients and Caries Prevalence in Permanent Dentition: A Systematic Review

by Miguel Ramón Pecci-Lloret, María Pilar Pecci-Lloret and Francisco Javier Rodríguez-Lozano

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 15194; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215194 - 17 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1592

Abstract

Due to the increase in the population with special needs and the significant difficulty in their dental management, it is essential to analyze the caries prevalence in this group of patients. The systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA statement. A search was performed on 9 May 2022 and updated on 5 June 2022, in three databases: Pubmed, Scielo, and Cochrane library. Studies involving the analysis of caries in permanent teeth in patients with special needs were included. A total of 1277 studies were analyzed and 21 studies were selected. Quality assessments were performed using an adapted version of the STROBE guidelines. Among the analyzed groups (intellectual disabilities, human immunodeficiency virus infection, schizophrenia, down syndrome, drug addicts, adult heart transplant, kidney disease, diabetic, autism, psychiatric patients, cerebral palsy, and hemophilia), the highest prevalence of caries was observed in patients with intellectual disability, without differences between genders. However, there is a need for more studies with standardized methods for caries diagnosis to further investigate the prevalence of caries in permanent teeth in patients with special needs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promoting Oral Health for Special Needs Patients)

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9 pages, 307 KiB

Open AccessProtocol

The Effectiveness of Sensory Adaptive Dental Environments to Reduce Corresponding Negative Behaviours and Psychophysiology Responses in Children and Young People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Protocol of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

by Kaitlyn Reynolds, Navira Chandio, Ritesh Chimoriya and Amit Arora

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(21), 13758; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113758 - 22 Oct 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1805

Abstract

People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs) are disproportionately vulnerable to poorer oral health due to their complex needs specifically sensory processing difficulties. This leads to increased maladaptive behaviours and psychophysiology responses of dental anxiety amplified by the overstimulating aspects of the dental environment. Although, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that sensory adaptions are an effective strategy for individuals with IDDs in a wide range of settings, there is a lack of high-quality evidence detailing the effectiveness in a dental setting. The objective of this review is to assess the effectiveness of sensory adaptive dental environments (SADE) to reduce dental anxiety, corresponding negative behaviours and psychophysiology responses in children and young people with IDDs. The systematic review will include all Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) that investigate the effectiveness of SADE compared to control (no intervention), waitlist or usual care (regular dental environment) to reduce dental anxiety and the corresponding negative behaviours and psychophysiology responses in children and young people (upto the ages of 24 years) with IDDs. This review will be conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Databases including MEDLINE (Ovid), The Cochrane Library, Embase, Google Scholar, Web of Science and OT Seeker will be searched using appropriate keywords. Additionally, citation searching will be conducted. Screening based on titles and abstracts will be done after de-duplication, followed by full-text reading for selection based on the inclusion criteria. Data extracted from the included studies will be tabulated and assessed for risk of bias. If applicable, a meta-analysis of the pooled data will be conducted. The review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022322083). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promoting Oral Health for Special Needs Patients)

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