Dental hygiene students and the management of special needs and elderly patients

OBJECTIVES Oral hygiene maintenance in special needs patients and in institutionalized geriatric patients dependent for care remains a challenge. Inadequate oral hygiene may result in not only the deterioration of oral health, but also the deterioration of general health, whereby decreasing the quality of life in multi-morbid special needs and geriatric patients dependent for care. Ineffective oral hygiene results in plaque retention and increases the oral bacterial flora. Nowadays, access of oral healthcare facilities to people with special needs and to elderly people with multiple comorbidities is still limited. The aim of this survey was to assess the attitudes of dental hygiene students towards special needs and elderly patients, as well as to evaluate their opinions on the adequacy of the modules present in their curriculum and their confidence in treating such patients unsupervised. MATERIALS AND METHODS The survey questionnaires used in this study was developed to assess the attitudes of the dental hygiene students towards treating special needs and geriatric patients and to assess the students’ opinions on the current special needs and geriatric curriculum in their present syllabus. Demo graphic data about the participants along with their year of study were collected in the same questionnaire. The questionnaire responses were anonymized, and no information regarding the identities of the respondents was collected. Participation in the survey was voluntary. RESULTS A total of 61 dental hygiene students participated in this survey. More than a half of students (54,1%) reported a marked sensitivity towards special needs patients, although alone 6,6% of students think they have sufficient knowledge and experience to approach patients with special needs well enough in their future work. Almost all the students think it would be useful to include a training module dedicated to special needs patients in the training plan of the degree course in dental hygiene. The 42,6% of students think that the geriatric program in the teaching curriculum is not adequate. CONCLUSIONS Dental hygiene students agreed that the geriatric dentistry is an important aspect of their study curriculum, but indicated a neutral attitude towards the sufficiency of the geriatric modules in their present curricula. There is an increasing need for geriatric dental care and special needs dental care, together with an un met need for professionals with appropriate skills to provide such care. Geriatric and special needs oral care is increasingly seen as a multidisciplinary concern with training involving a wide range of health professionals from carers to dentists and a range of dental and health professionals. Incorporation of more specific education al modules along with extending opportunities to treat more special needs and geriatric patients during the dental hygiene students’ education can further help prepare the dental hygiene students better for the future for providing the necessary care to a geriatric population CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Improving the special needs and geriatric teaching curriculum could in turn improve the delivery and quality of dental care in such populations.