Barriers and Motivations to Provide Dental Care to Adult Patients with Movement Disorders

Abstract

Patients with movement disorders, like Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, tend to have poor oral health. Although contributing factors have been proposed, the willingness and ability of dentists to treat this patient population are still unknown. Our objective is to understand the current barriers and motivations of dentists to treat this patient population as a path to improved care and quality of life. A total of 176 dentists in Texas were surveyed through a structured questionnaire which contained both closed and open-ended questions. Nearly 30% of participants reported having no barriers to treating these patients and 26.7% reported that no such patients have visited their practice. Barriers reported included lack of education on the topic (17.6%) and longer appointments than average (14.8%). A main motivation to treat these patients was more training and education on the subject (38.6%). Poor oral health in patients with movement disorders may not be due to barriers encountered by dentists, but rather encountered by patients, such as access to and use of dental treatment. General dentists are willing to provide care for adult patients with movement disorders and continuing education for these providers is preferred over referral to a specialist.

Keywords: dental care for aged; dentistry; health services accessibility; movement disorders.

Figure 1

Flow chart of participant recruitment. PMD: patients with movement disorders.

Figure 2

Barriers to treating patients with movement disorders reported by dentists in Texas. Participants reported having no barriers to treating patients with movement disorders (29.5%) and that no patients with these disorders have visited their practice (26.7%). The barriers most often reported by dentists were lack of education specific for this patient population (17.6%) and patients with movement disorders needing longer appointments than other patients (14.8%). Few respondents reported not being interested in treating this patient population (3.4%), that treating them is unrewarding financially (4.0%), or that their practice is not accessible (4.0%). PMD: patients with movement disorders.

Figure 3

Motivations to treat patients with movement disorders reported by dentists in Texas. The most frequently reported motivations to treat patients with movement disorders were if respondents could have more training and education on the subject (38.6%), if they were asked by a colleague to treat a patient with a movement disorder (32.4%), and if a family member or friend had a movement disorder (27.8%). Other motivations reported less frequently included more available time (15.3%), more available staff (11.9%), more available equipment (17.6%), bringing more income (18.2%), and other (12.5%). MD: movement disorder.