Special Health Care Needs
Matthew Palmer, DDS
PGY-2 Resident
Children’s Hospital of Michigan -— Detroit Medical Center, Detroit, MI
Grosse Pointe, Michigan, United States
James P. Stenger, DDS, MS
Pediatric Dentistry Residency Program Director
Children's Hospital of Michigan - Detroit Medical Center
Hazel Park, Michigan, United States
Mary Calek, DDS
Children's Hospital of Michigan
Hazel Park, Michigan, United States
Purpose: To survey current American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) residents regarding their experience with patients who have Down Syndrome.
Methods: Participants will receive an email via the AAPD listserv advertising the study. The email includes a link to a Google survey. Participants will be asked about their training on patients with Down Syndrome.
Results: 71 responses were collected. 14.1% of residents reported substantial patient treatment encounters (10 or more patients), 39.4% of respondents reported moderate patient treatment encounters (2 to 5 patients), 29.6% of respondents reported minimal patient treatment encounters (0 to 1 patients), and 16.9% of respondents reported no experience prior to residency. The participants reported ‘Case presentations’ and ‘Formal in-person lectures’ as their program’s main resources of preparing them for managing patients with Down Syndrome. Residents’ level of diagnostic experience in recognizing oral manifestations of patients with Down Syndrome include 35.2% of residents feel ‘very familiar’, 60.6% of residents feel ‘somewhat familiar’, and 4.2% of residents do not feel familiar. 8.5% of residents ‘strongly agree’ they have acquired the necessary skills, background and eduction to provide dental treatment to patients with Down Syndrome, 54.9% of residents ‘agree’, 29.6% are ‘neutral’, 5.6% ‘disagree’ and 1.4% 'strongly disagree'.
Conclusions: Overall, AAPD pediatric dental residents feel they have received adequate experience in the management of patients with Down Syndrome. For future studies on this subject, a look into each program’s resources on preparing residents for treating this patient population could serve as models for programs who may require improvements.