Shortening-The-Line: Reducing the Need for Sedation and General Anesthesia for Dental Care for People with Disabilities

Abstract

ABSTRACTBackground Many people with disabilities face significant barriers to obtaining dental care in the traditional dental office and clinic environment.Literature and Program Review A 2009 consensus statement developed by the Special Care Dentistry Association described multiple strategies that can be used to achieve and maintain oral health for people with disabilities. The statement concluded that many of these strategies are underused because of lack of awareness and training and inadequate reimbursement. Newer reports have also reached similar conclusions. Now, advances in workforce, policy, dental materials and techniques, telehealth technologies, and delivery systems have opened up tremendous potential to better reach people with disabilities, employ prevention and early intervention strategies early in the disease process, and improve and maintain oral health.Conclusions Employing these advances can significantly reduce the need for sedation and general anesthesia and allow many people with disabilities to maintain oral health in community sites and regular dental offices and clinics. The “shorten the line” framework describes planned demonstrations of these principles.

Keywords

• Community health
• access to care
• dental care delivery systems
• oral health systems
• underserved population
• people with disabilities