How can we improve orthodontic care for patients with autism and/or learning disabilities? Pamela E Ellis Sarah Silverton Lorna Hollingsworth Dental Update 2024 9:1, 707-709.
Authors
Pamela EEllis
BDS(Hons), FDS RCS, MSc, MOrth RCS, FDS(Orth) RCS
Consultant Orthodontist, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Williams Avenue, Dorchester, Dorset, UK
Sedation and Pain Management PG Cert, MSc, Associate Clinical Director/Specialist Special Care Dentistry, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol Road, Bridgwater TA6 4RN, UK
Receiving orthodontic care can be challenging for our patients with autism and/or learning disabilities; being in new places, meeting new people and having treatment can be overwhelming. In this article the authors have worked with carers to understand better the challenges patients with autism and/or learning disabilities face and identify reasonable adjustments which can be made to improve their experience. It is hoped that other orthodontists may adopt these changes in their own services or find similar ways to improve the care of this patient group.
Clinical Relevance: Orthodontists encounter patients with autism and/or learning disabilities in their day-to-day practice. This paper outlines reasonable adjustments they can make to improve the experience of these patients.
Article
In a previous project using an experience-based design (ebd) approach to measure patients' experiences, the authors were surprised at the high numbers of patients who experience negative emotions at their orthodontic consultation appointment; 39% of patients attending a consultation appointment felt nervous, anxious or unwelcome at some point in their journey.1 Whilst carrying out this work the authors became aware that, in particular, patients with autism and/or learning disabilities can find attending orthodontic appointments challenging; being in new places and meeting new people can be overwhelming and some patients find this so difficult that they are unable to come to what we perceive as a ‘routine’ orthodontic assessment. Others, although they manage to attend clinics, find it difficult to cope with the sights, sounds, smells, lights and colours within surgeries, or the tastes and textures of the instruments, materials and appliances used in their mouths.
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