Special Needs Dentistry 1

Special Needs Dentistry 1 provides the foundations for the study of Special Needs Dentistry (SND) which includes establishing an understanding of the links between disability and impairment, mental and general health and well-being, and oral health. Learning is achieved through a combination of didactic teaching sessions and clinical placements. The subject will introduce a student to concepts of communication, advocacy and consent, and health, functioning, and ageing in the context of patients with disabilities and special health care needs. The subject aims to enable a student to develop and apply their growing understanding of these principles that might impact on an individual’s oral health, to the treatment planning and management of patients with special needs, with a particular focus on the role of clinicians in special needs dentistry in the facilitating the oral health care needs for people with special needs and as part of the wider dental system and multidisciplinary dental team.