Dentists’ Perception of Oral Healthcare for Children with Special Needs

Objective:  The provision of oral healthcare services to children with special needs (CSN) has been given limited attention by the dental profession. This study aims to assess Malaysian dentists’ experiences and perceived barriers in providing oral healthcare for CSN. Method: A cross sectional study using self-administered questionnaire was conducted among public and private general dentists in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. They were assessed on their experiences, training, knowledge, confidence level and perceived barriers in the management of CSN. Result: Overall, 385 dentists participated (82.1% public, 34.1% private). The majority (90.6%) had experience in providing care for CSN mostly for children with mental disabilities (92.6%), physically disabled (76.8%) and medically compromised (73.1%). Type of care rendered was extraction (77.7%), examination only (76.8%), restorative (74.8%) and scaling (69.6%). Oral surgery was the least performed (5.2%). Most had relevant undergraduate training with regards to CSN but the majority (79%) claimed that it was not adequate. About 35% reported to have training in management of CSN after graduation. The majority (93%) perceived the need for further training. Only 8.8% reported to have adequate relevant knowledge but almost half of the samples (48.9%) were confident to manage CSN. Perceived barriers were i) patient factors namely lack of cooperation (92.7%), difficult communication (90.1%), time consuming (81.3%), and ii) dentist factors namely difficulty in procedures (80.3%), lack of knowledge (63.4%), lack of experience (77.9), lack of trained personnel (76.9%) and inadequate facilities (76.1%). About two third (65.7%) perceived that provision of care should be encountered by specialist. Conclusion: Most dentists reported to have experience in managing CSN but only a small number reported to have adequate knowledge or training. Hence, dentists need to undergo further training to enhance their knowledge and skills towards a more comprehensive provision of care for children with special needs.