Dentists Willingness to Treat Children with Special Needs

Objective: Special needs children are an underserved group of dental patients in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of dentists' participation and their perception about treating children with special needs. Methods: The study population consisted of a random sample of 350 general dentists practicing in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Data were collected by a self-administered mail survey that consisted of 24 items of which six items were pre-coded. The survey investigated dentists' willingness to treat children with special needs, their comfort level in doing so, and barriers to treating these children. Results: After two mailings the effective response rate to the survey was 34.0%. Respondents consisted mainly of males (85%) with a mean age of 52.1+/-11.4 years, who had been in practice for 25.1+/-11.9 years. Almost all respondents were practicing in urban and suburban areas with a majority being solo practitioners (76%). On average respondents were seeing 107 patients per week, of whom nearly two were children with special needs. While nearly 64% of the respondents felt comfortable treating children with special needs only 37% felt that they had received adequate training to treat them. More than 60% of respondents reported treating children with special needs and nearly 34% referred them to other practices. Reasons for not treating children with special needs included poor comfort level, prior bad experience, and lack of adequate training. Nearly 25% of respondents would like their name included in a county directory of dentists willing to treat children with special needs. Conclusion: There is a deficiency of access to care for children with special needs. In order to improve this problem, it seems important for dental schools to alter their curricula to include more training for students in this area.