Perception of graduation students about the importance of Dentistry’s discipline for patients with special needs

• Main Author: Silva, Tamires Daiane da
• Publication Date: 2020
• Other Authors: Santaella, Natalia Garcia, Caminha, Raquel D'Aquino Garcia, Santos, Paulo Sérgio da Silva
• Format: Article
• Language: por; eng
• Source: Revista da ABENO (Online)
• Download full: https://revabeno.emnuvens.com.br/revabeno/article/view/907
• topic: Disabled Persons. Dental Care for Chronically Ill. Dentistry; Education. Dental; Students.; Pessoas com Deficiência. Assistência Odontológica para Doentes Crônicos. Odontologia. Educação em Odontologia. Estudantes de Odontologia.

People with special needs (PSN) represent 10% of the world population and their particularities, added with the lack of theoretical knowledge and clinical experience, make dentists feel unable to attend to them. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the importance of dentistry students in the discipline of dentistry for patients with special needs (DPSN). This is an exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative study, for which data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 29 students at the end of the DPSN discipline at the Bauru School of Dentistry (BSD). Students recognized that the lack of contact with PSN during the course may cause professional insecurity in providing dental care to these patients, thus making access to oral healthcare difficult for this population. The DPSN discipline in this study enabled students to learn, live with, and provide adequate and humanized dental care to the PSN population.