Dentists and their Willingness to Treat Adolescents with Learning Disabilities : a Survey of Accessibility in Primary Dental Care

The aim of this study is to examine primary dental care practitioners’ <br/>willingness to treat adolescents with learning disability (LD) in two contrasting <br/>areas of Northern Ireland (NI) and Scotland using Cohen’s accessibility <br/>‘dental health professional’factors (Cohen, 1987).<br/>A non-probability sample of all primary care dentists in the more urban <br/>EHSSB [NI] and remote and rural health board of NHS Highland (Scotland)<br/>(537) in both the Salaried Dental Services (SDS) and General Dental Services <br/>(GDS), were invited to take part in the survey. The main outcome measures <br/>were demographic profile, previous undergraduate and postgraduate <br/>experience, knowledge of LD and its’ management in the clinical setting, <br/>numbers of adolescents with LD treated, attitudes towards individuals LD and <br/>willingness to treat this patient group. <br/>The data was analysed by t-tests, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), factor <br/>analysis and pathway analysis. Three hundred SDS and GDS dentists <br/>completed the self-administered questionnaire. The valid response rate <br/>was 61%. <br/>There was no significant difference in numbers of adolescents with <br/>LD treated in the health boards examined in NI and Scotland. <br/>Willingness to treat adolescents with LD was positively associated with a <br/>social model perspective on disability. This in turn translated to the <br/>development of positive attitudes. <br/>Conversely, dentists who held a medical model of disability, were found to have more negative attitudes and <br/>were less willing to treat adolescents with LD. <br/>The acquisition of knowledge and increased level of undergraduate training in<br/>relation to LD and its’ management would appear to strengthen a social model<br/>perspective and hence promote positive attitudes and willingness to treat those<br/>adolescents with LD. Meanwhile, undergraduate training and knowledge <br/>pertaining to disability did not significantly contribute to dentists <br/>whose beliefs underpinned the medical model of disability. These findings were <br/>consistent for dentists working<br/>in two distinct health board areas of the United Kingdom and within both<br/>the SDS and GDS. Therefore area of work per se (ie rural or urban location) <br/>is not an influential factor in willingness to treat and hence unmet <br/>treatment need. This does not exclude the possibility that area of work may <br/>have a bearing on willingness to treat as a consequence of university attended <br/>for their undergraduate training.<br/>It is recommended that suggestions for undergraduate training and <br/>postgraduate education are commensurate with Government policy<br/> (DoH, 2007) on the mainstreaming of dental services for special care patients.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Master of Philosophy

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Master's Thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Dundee

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Coyle, Catherine

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Freeman, Ruth

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

oai:discovery.dundee.ac.uk:studenttheses/f3087955-94c6-4537-a602-7a8a64d04dc6

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:discovery.dundee.ac.uk:studenttheses/f3087955-94c6-4537-a602-7a8a64d04dc6