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. 2022 Apr 25;17(4):e0266879.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266879. eCollection 2022.

Mentoring of oral health professionals is crucial to improving access to care for people with special needs

Mathew Albert Wei Ting Lim  1   2   3 , Sharon Andrea Corinne Liberali  4   5 , Hanny Calache  1   6 , Peter Parashos  1 , Gelsomina Lucia Borromeo  1
Affiliations

Mentoring of oral health professionals is crucial to improving access to care for people with special needs

Mathew Albert Wei Ting Lim et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: Individuals with special health care needs continue to experience difficulties with accessing regular dental care. This has largely been due to clinicians feeling they lack the training and experience to manage their needs. The aim of this study was to determine whether working closely with specialists in special need dentistry influenced the willingness of clinicians to treat patients with special needs.

Materials and methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with specialists and clinicians involved in these mentoring initiatives. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to determine perspectives towards how this additional support influenced their willingness to treat individuals with special needs.

Results: The views of all participants towards these supports were positive with clinicians feeling it not only offered them opportunities to learn from the specialists, but also increased their willingness to treat individuals with special needs and the timeliness and quality of care they were able to provide. Likewise, despite some concerns about the inappropriate use of specialist support, the specialists felt these mentoring relationships offered many benefits including improving timely access to care and ensuring individuals were able to receive appropriate care.

Conclusions: Mentoring provided by specialists in special needs dentistry improved the willingness of clinicians to provide care for individuals with special health care needs. Supports such as these are likely to be crucial to overcoming concerns of clinicians about their ability to manage the needs of these individuals and begin to address a significant barrier to access of care for individuals with special health care needs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Coding tree for clinician interviews.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Coding tree for specialist interviews.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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