What Are the Unique Oral Health Needs of Patients with Special Needs?

December 19, 2019

It’s sad, but it’s true. In the special needs dental care field, it’s a known fact that patients with special needs tend to get less frequent dental care than others. Oftentimes, the reason that a special needs patient may not have bi-annual dental cleanings and emergency dental care is that it’s difficult for family members to find a Riverside area dentist familiar with working with individuals with cognitive, physical, or behavioral disabilities.

For these reasons, when special needs patients do find a trained and caring special needs dental care practitioner like the dentists of In Motion Dentists, they often have unique oral health care needs. Here’s a list of some challenges that local Riverside special needs dental patients often present.

• Excessive Plaque and Tartar Build Up from Difficulty Practicing Daily Oral Hygiene Routines

Some people with special needs are able to provide self oral hygiene care with modified dental instruments such as an electric toothbrush and tooth flossers or picks. Other Riverside patients rely on their caregiver to brush their teeth twice daily and floss them once a day.

Regardless of your loved one’s situation, the dentists of In Motion Dentists often find that their special needs patients have a more difficult time keeping plaque and tartar at bay. These patients require more scraping and scaling of the teeth during dental cleanings, and can also be presenting various stages of periodontal disease

• Various Stages of Periodontal Disease

We’ve all heard of gingivitis and gum disease. These are actually stages of a much larger disease called periodontal disease. Periodontal disease can start with red and swollen gums, and progress to more serious conditions including gums that begin to peel away from the teeth, deep pockets (sometimes filled with pus) that form between the teeth, jawbone tissue loss, loose and shifting teeth, and even teeth that become so loose or infected they fall out or need to be surgically extracted!

To combat advanced stages of periodontal disease in your loved one’s mouth, the dentist may recommend a special deep cleaning called scaling and root planing. This special procedure, which is performed under local anesthesia, so the mouth is numbed and your loved one is comfortable, includes cleaning underneath the gums and the roots of the teeth.

In special needs dental care, sometimes for the patient’s ultimate comfort, sedation dentistry is performed for scaling and root planing. While the dentists at In Motion Dentists always like to avoid sedation dentistry whenever possible, they will use it when both the caregiver and other attending physicians believe it’s in the best interest of the patient.

• Sensitive Teeth That the Patient Hasn’t or Can’t Communicate About

Sometimes, Riverside patients with special needs have a difficult time communicating about things that are bothering them. This may mean your loved one is suffering from a toothache, but unable to explain it to you. This is why, during all regular dental examinations, In Motion Dentists take extreme care to evaluate all teeth, look for signs of discomfort that other dentists might miss, as well as look for early signs of tooth decay, gum inflammation, and more.

Contact In Motion Dentists to Learn More About Special Needs Dental Care

If you’re in the Inland Empire and need a mobile dentist who is specially trained to care for those with special needs, you’ve come to the right place.

To learn more about how their dentists can care for your loved one and provide the specialized dental care he or she deserves, contact In Motion Dentists in Riverside today at (626) 594-0374.