Abstract

GIRALDO-ZULUAGA, María Cristina et al. Oral health management in people with disabilities. CES odontol. [online]. 2017, vol.30, n.2, pp.23-36. ISSN 0120-971X.  https://doi.org/10.21615/cesodon.30.2.3.

In the world there are more than one billion people with disabilities and although these terms are not synonymous with severe oral changes, it has been detected that people with disabilities have more risk to suffer oral pathologies due to poor dental service related to the reluctance dentist have to take care of these patients. Communication with patients with conditions such as autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment; presents an additional component of difficulty, so it is necessary to rely on a system of communicative strategies, care protocols and means of support that may vary among different disabilities. These enable people with communication difficulties to interact with their environment. Training for dentists on this field is not easy, since there are not sufficient programs covering completely professional training in dentistry in this area.

The purpose of this article was to review some types of disabilities, their most common oral manifestations, dental management and appropriate alternative communication strategies to provide good dental services.

Keywords : Disability; behavior management; oral diseases; treatment; augmentative and alternative communication.

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