Journal of Disability and Oral Health

cover art

Cover Date:
March 2012
Print ISSN:
1470-855
Vol:
13
Issue:
1

Access to care waiting times for special care patients accessing specialist services in a dental hospital

Journal of Disability and Oral Health (2012) 13/1 27-34

Access to care: waiting times for special care patients accessing specialist services in a dental hospital
Grace Kelly BDS MFDS RCSI1 and June Nunn2
1

SHO Special Care Dentistry; 2Dean/Professor of Special Care Dentistry: Public and Child Dental Health, Dublin Dental University Hospital, Lincoln Place, Dublin 2, Ireland

Abstract Aim and Objectives: To measure the waiting times experienced by Special Care dental patients at Dublin Dental University Hospital; to compare 2006 and 2007 data with similar lists for advanced restorative dental assessment; and check compliance with a proposed standard of 18 weeks. Also to determine: waiting times for dental treatment in SCD clinics (2006 and 2007) depending on choice of local anaesthesia alone, conscious sedation or general anaesthesia; the care pathway of patients after assessment in SCD clinics. Methodology: Review of referral letters and computer records, hospital monthly waiting times and the type of adjunct required for dental treatment. Results: In 2006, 70% of patients were waiting less than 18 weeks for dental assessment in the SCD clinic (60%, 2007) meaning the standard was not met in either year. SC assessment waiting lists times compared similarly in 2006 to advanced restorative assessment. There was no substantial difference in the waiting times for dental treatment in SCD clinics between 2006 and 2007. Average dental treatment waiting times increased in 2007 by almost 12 weeks for those awaiting treatment under general anaesthesia, compared to 2006. Conclusions: Increasing the number of clinics available and/or increasing the staffing numbers would reduce the waiting times for both assessment and dental treatment in SCD consultant clinics. This particular group of patients has a number of concurrent medical and physical problems, compared to the general population, which make it difficult for them to attend dental services and thus the number of patients who fail-to-attend or have to cancel at short notice is substantial, making the clinics more difficult to run efficiently. Key words: Special care dentistry, waiting times, dental treatment Received - 07 September 2011. Accepted - 22 February 2012. DOI: 10.4483/JDOH_004Kelly08

Introduction
Special Care Dentistry (SCD) provides dental care for people with ‘special needs’. This involves ‘the improvement of oral health of individuals and groups in society who have a physical, sensory, intellectual, mental, medical, emotional or social impairment or disability or, more often, a combination of a number of these factors’ (BSDH, 2003). The 2006 Irish Census of Population found that 9.3% of the population, or 393,800 persons, reported a disability (National Disability Survey, 2006). The majority of these patients are successfully treated in primary dental care settings (Department of Health (Dublin), 2003). However, it is essential that there are secondary/tertiary care centres for general dental practitioners to refer special care patients for complex dental treatment with or without adjuncts like sedation and general anaesthesia. A set of referral criteria for the Dublin Dental University Hospital’s (DDUH) Special Care Clinic was established in 2002 to provide for people:

1. With a disability where: • Communication and/or cooperation is insufficient to allow routine dental care (examination / operative / surgical procedures with / without local anaesthesia) Where appropriate sedation facilities are not available from the referral source at present

•

2. With a physical disability, whose impairment does not permit the safe delivery of dental care in the conventional way 3. Where there is unstable organic disease and where the consultant physician requires the patient to be treated in a hospital (secondary or tertiary) setting

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£
Page Start
27
Page End
34
Authors

Articles from this issue

  • Title
  • Pg. Start
  • Pg. End

  1. Editorial - Encouraging wider participation and engagement
  2. 2
  3. 2

  1. Measuring dental anxiety in children with complex and additional support needs using the Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scale (faces) (MCDASf)
  2. 3
  3. 10

  1. The oral health status and behaviour among non-institutionalised employed adults with intellectual disabilities
  2. 11
  3. 18

  1. Saudi dental students’ perception of their education in Special Care Dentistry and its effect on their confidence to render care
  2. 19
  3. 25

  1. Access to care waiting times for special care patients accessing specialist services in a dental hospital
  2. 27
  3. 34

  1. Diary Dates
  2. 35
  3. 35

  1. Instructions to Authors
  2. 38
  3. 39

2024 rates