Oral Health Considerations for Patients

Oral Health Considerations for Patients with Special Healthcare Needs.” It is a didactic course with 10 modules covering a very wide range of disabilities (developmental, intellectual, physical, sensory, etc).

The learning objectives are that by the end of the course, trainees will be able to

·        Demonstrate an understanding of the lived experiences of people with special healthcare needs

·        Distinguish impairment from disability

·        Understand the social, legal, and ethical contexts of dental care for people with special needs from both an individual and systems level

·        Describe psychological aspects of providing dental care to people with special needs

·        Consider the value of interprofessional teams in care of people with special needs

·        Detail communications techniques valuable to care of people with special needs

·        Advance preventive strategies and public health approaches to care of people and populations with special needs.

Topics and their associated modules are:

A.     Impairment, Disability and Oral Health Quality of Life (AoL)
Module 1: Impairment, Disability and Oral Health Quality of Life (AoL)
Module 2: Understanding Impairment and Disability Through Patient's Perspective’

B.     Systems and Individual Contexts of Special Care Dentistry
Module 3: Social, Legal, and Ethical Contexts on the System Level
Module 4: Social, Legal, and Ethical Contexts on the Individual Level,

C.      Psychology related to Special Care Dentistry
Module 5: Psychological approaches to Special Care Dentistry

D.     Oral Healthcare Planning and Teamwork
Module 6: Patient-centered Communication & Treatment,
Module 7: Interprofessional Team Building and Communication 1,

E.      Clinical Special Care Dentistry
Module 8: Interprofessional Team Building and Communication 2,
Module 9: Health Literacy & Patient Safety,

F.      Dental Public Health and Oral Health