Abstract
Special Care Dentistry (SCD) is an unrecognised speciality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and it is not currently taught as a major part of undergraduate or postgraduate dental curricular. The number of people with special needs is expected to increase based on the presence of many risk factors. For instance, the government is facing a rising burden of road traffic injuries as a result of rapid changes in behaviours. Therefore, more survivors are expected who might live using wheelchairs or with permanent physical impairments. Additionally, the elderly population of Saudi Arabia is expected to grow from 1 million in 2000 to 7.7 million in 2050. Improvements in paediatric health care in Saudi Arabia are expected to increase the number of people living with chronic or debilitating medical conditions. Thereby, dental care providers must anticipate patients with chronic medical conditions and/or wheelchair users in their daily practice. Implementation of SCD in the undergraduate and postgraduate dental programmes in Saudi dental universities will help oral health care providers to manage these patients and involve them in the health care pathway.
Journal of Disability and Oral Health (2017)
Note: Article posted on SaudiDent.com with permissions from the Publisher in England (Stephen Hancocks Ltd) and the Journal of Disability and Oral Health, the official publication of the British Society for Disability and Oral Health (BSDH) and the official journal of the International Association of Disability and Oral Health (iADH).
How can we make it a taught speciality in Saudi???? It is really concerning and worrying that no one gives a damn about special needs individuals here in Saudi.