Title: Exploring dentists' attitudes and perceptions towards providing dental care to children with disability
Abstract:
Aim: Children with physical or cognitive disabilities face inequities in access to dental care, high prevalence of oral diseases, and poor health outcomes.This study aims to understand the perceptions, attitudes and barriers of dentists towards dental care provision for children with disabilities (CWD).
Methods: This is an ongoing cross-sectional study following a mixed methodology and targeting Qatar dentists practicing in the private sector. An adapted survey instrument explored dentists’ experiences, attitudes, concerns and barriers. Responses were collected on 5-point-Likert scale. Higher scores reflected more positive attitudes and a higher extent of concern. Semi-structured interviews with 7 purposively selected dentists were also conducted.
Results: One hundred forty seven dentists completed the survey to-date. Only 20% had attended specialized training or continuing education related to special needs dentistry, and reported having facilities to help manage CWD in their clinics. Dentists had moderately positive attitudes (median score =3.70, IQR 3.2-4.1) towards treating CWD, with attitude scores being highest for periodontists and pediatric dentists. The majority were aware of the importance of oral health of CWD (86%); however, only 37% expressed having adequate knowledge to treat CWD. Dentists’ were mostly concerned about poor patient cooperation (70%), fear of injury to patient (58%), and inability to provide ideal treatment (58%) (mean score of concerns=2.60, SD=0.9). Barriers included parent prioritization of medical treatment over dental treatment, child’s anxiety, and dentists' lack of needed training. Dentists emphasized the importance of parent awareness, health diet and the impact of child care delegation to maids. System barriers included lack of routine dental check-ups, no medical records integration, limited point of care access and lack of needed training for dentists.
Conclusions: Dentists held slightly favorable attitudes but low self-efficacy towards providing dental treatment to CWD. Training programs about dental care for CWD are needed. Findings from full study can provide baseline evidence for policy makers.
