Introduction
The numbers are dramatic; 52
million Americans have some type of disabling condition such as cerebral
palsy, mental retardation, depression, spinal cord injury, visual impairment,
arthritis, or muscular dystrophy, to name a few. 25 million Americans have
a severe disability.
Historically, many of these "special patients" received care in
hospitals, infirmaries, nursing homes and state-operated institutions.
Due to the substantial increase in the number of individuals now living
with unique special needs as well as society's desire to remove physical
and psychological barriers and stimulate health care access, the trend
is for these individuals to seek care from traditional mainstream community-based
health care providers.
Most of us who have had a private
practice have treated elderly 
patients,
people with disabilities, patients with cardiovascular problems, or a patient
undergoing cancer therapy. As health care improves and many of the once
acute and fatal conditions become chronic and manageable problems, these
patients will continue to grow in number and seek care from private practitioners.
Therefore, dentists and other oral health care professionals have an increasing
responsibility to identify patients with systemic diseases, compromising
conditions, and disabilities that have an impact on , and can be impacted
by, oral health treatment. That is, more patients will require accommodation
of their disabling conditions and need oral health care that is optimally
coordinated with their systemic conditions.
These changes require oral
health professionals to become competent in providing care to patients
with disabling conditions.
This course is intended as
an introduction to providing dental care to people with disabilities.
