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Divyangjan Clinic

Divyangjan Clinic

DENTAL CARE FOR PATIENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Policy & SOP

A basic understanding of the oral challenges faced by disabled patients will allow dental surgeons to provide optimum care.

Objectives

  • Categorize patients with special needs
  • Segregate barriers to obtain dental care
  • Interdisciplinary approach to support the dental treatment

Beneficiaries

  • Patients who use wheel chairs
  • Patients with broken or amputated limbs
  • Patients with sensory impairments
  • Patients suffering from developmental conditions like Down syndrome

SOP

  • Clinician needs to speak face to face with the patient so that they can read the lips
  • Doctor should be ready to write messages on a pad of paper or use sign language or use white board
  • Tell, show, do approach for patients with anxiety
  • Ramp with hand rails for such patients.
  • Stabilisation of patient heads can be accomplished by using towels, pillows or rolled blankets.
  • Oral stabilisation via mouth props can be achieved using rubber or styrofoam bite blocks.
  • Patients who have difficulty in holding thin tooth brushes, modifications are done by anchoring tooth brush in tennis balls, cycle hand grips, wristbands etc.

The in charge for the special health care needs clinic is a senior staff from the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology.

The postgraduates from the respective departments will be taking care of the treatment procedures, and interns are assigned to assist the postgraduates.