Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Access to dental care in individuals with disability: a systematic review

Evidence-Based Dentistry (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

This systematic review was conducted to explore the factors influencing access to oral health services and to identify and examine the strategies to improve the access.

Materials and methods

PubMed, Scopus and Embase databases were searched. Studies except editorials reported in English regardless of the study design were included. Risk of Bias assessment was carried out using Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Newcastle Ottawa Scale and The Joanna Briggs Institute tool for cross-sectional, case-control and cohort and qualitative studies, respectively.

Results

In total, 11,372 records were initially identified, eventually leading to 12 relevant publications to be included in the review. Individuals valued oral health but found it difficult to access oral health services. Dental care was mainly accessed during emergencies and participants felt apprehensive in visiting dentists. Caregiver’s and dentist’s perspective was also reported.

Conclusion

There is a need for provision of education, training and increasing awareness on dental hygiene and annual dental checkups to improve access.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Morgan JP, Minihan PM, Stark PC, Finkelman MD, Yantsides KE, Park A, et al. The oral health status of 4,732 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. J Am Dent Assoc. 2012;143:838–46.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Altun C, Guven G, Akgun OM, Akkurt MD, Basak F, Akbulut E. Oral health status of disabled individuals attending special schools. Eur J Dent. 2010;4:361–6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Monitoring Access to Personal Health Care Services, Millman M, editor. Access to health care in America. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1993. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235882/; https://doi.org/10.17226/2009.

  4. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Health Care Services; Committee on Health Care Utilization and Adults with Disabilities. Health-care utilization as a proxy in disability determination. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK500097/.

  5. Carrasquillo O. Health care utilization. In: Gellman MD, Turner JR, editors. Encyclopedia of behavioral medicine. New York, NY: Springer; 2013. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_885.

  6. da Rosa SV, Moysés SJ, Theis LC, Soares RC, Moysés ST, Werneck RI, et al. Barriers in access to dental services hindering the treatment of people with disabilities: a systematic review. Int J Dent. 2020;2020:9074618.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Reda SF, Reda SM, Thomson WM, Schwendicke F. Inequality in utilization of dental services: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Public Health. 2018;108:e1–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Zeng X, Zhang Y, Kwong JS, Zhang C, Li S, Sun F, et al. The methodological quality assessment tools for preclinical and clinical studies, systematic review and meta-analysis, and clinical practice guideline: a systematic review. J Evid Based Med. 2015;8:2–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Mamikutty R, Aly AS, Marhazlinda J. Selecting risk of bias tools for observational studies for a systematic review of anthropometric measurements and dental caries among children. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18:8623.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Stang A. Critical evaluation of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for the assessment of the quality of nonrandomized studies in meta-analyses. Eur J Epidemiol. 2010;25:603–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Lockwood C, Munn Z, Porritt K. Qualitative research synthesis: methodological guidance for systematic reviewers utilizing meta-aggregation. Int J Evid Based Healthc. 2015;13:179–87.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Rashid-Kandvani F, Nicolau B, Bedos C. Access to dental services for people using a wheelchair. Am J Public Health. 2015;105:2312–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Leal Rocha L, Vieira de Lima Saintrain M, Pimentel Gomes Fernandes Vieira-Meyer A. Access to dental public services by disabled persons. BMC Oral Health. 2015;15:35.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Park BY, Cho HA, Shin H. Disparity in access for people with disabilities to outpatient dental care services: a retrospective cohort study. BMC Oral Health. 2023;23:213.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Sherriff A, Stewart R, Macpherson LMD, Kidd JBR, Henderson A, Cairns D, et al. Child oral health and preventive dental service access among children with intellectual disabilities, autism and other educational additional support needs: a population-based record linkage cohort study. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2023;51:494–502.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Mansoor D, Al Halabi M, Khamis AH, Kowash M. Oral health challenges facing Dubai children with autism spectrum disorder at home and in accessing oral health care. Eur J Paediatr Dent. 2018;19:127–33.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Frusca do Monte CM, da Silva LT, da Silva VC, Almeida GS, Lorenzato CS, Menezes JVNB, et al. Access to dental care for patients with inherited bleeding and hemoglobin disorders. Spec Care Dentist. 2022;42:509–15.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Zahran SS, Bhadila GY, Alasiri SA, Alkhashrami AA, Alaki SM. Access to dental care for children with special health care needs: a cross-sectional community survey within Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. J Clin Pediatr Dent. 2023;47:50–7.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. D’Addazio G, Santilli M, Sinjari B, Xhajanka E, Rexhepi I, Mangifesta R, et al. Access to dental care—a survey from dentists, people with disabilities and caregivers. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18:1556.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Shyama M, Al-Mutawa SA, Honkala E, Honkala S. Parental perceptions of dental visits and access to dental care among disabled schoolchildren in Kuwait. Odontostomatol Trop. 2015;38:34–42.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Hu K, Da Silva K. Access to oral health care for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: a cross-sectional study. BMC Oral Health. 2022;22:497.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Schaffer R, Duong MT, Wachter B, Arana E, Frances D. Access to dental care for people with bleeding disorders: survey results of hemophilia treatment centers in the U.S. Spec Care Dentist. 2016;36:295–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/scd.12189.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Dassah E, Aldersey HM, McColl MA, Davison C. Health care providers’ and persons with disabilities’ recommendations for improving access to primary health care services in rural northern Ghana: a qualitative study. PLoS ONE. 2022;17:e0274163.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Public Health Dentistry, Centre for Dental Education and Research, AIIMS, New Delhi, India

    Upendra Singh Bhadauria, Bharathi Purohit & Harsh Priya

Authors
  1. Upendra Singh Bhadauria
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bharathi Purohit
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Harsh Priya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

USB: conception, data acquisition, visualization, interpretation, and drafted the manuscript. BP: data acquisition, synthesis, interpretation, and drafted the manuscript. HP: provision and management of study literature resources, critically revised the manuscript. All authors gave their final approval and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work. The authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harsh Priya.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bhadauria, U.S., Purohit, B. & Priya, H. Access to dental care in individuals with disability: a systematic review. Evid Based Dent (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41432-024-00970-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41432-024-00970-3

Search

Advanced search

Quick links