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
The second course is “Population Oral Health Management.”
The learning objectives are:
Participants by the end of the course will be able to:
· demonstrate an understanding of healthcare financing and delivery changes underway in the US as context for changes that are expected to impact dental practice and the care of all patients, particularly those with special needs.
· consider how population-level health surveillance, measurement, and reporting informs population oral health management including the development and use of oral health metrics.
· appreciate the importance of social, behavioral, environmental, and healthcare determinants of health attainment and maintenance and how non-clinical dental approaches are informing care.
· understand concepts of quality improvement as applied to oral health care assessment and advancement.
· identify options and opportunities to address oral healthcare policy making to advance the oral health of populations, including those with special needs.