257 - Access to Dental Care in Sickle Cell Anemia Patients in an Urban Hospital Setting

Purpose:  The purpose of this quality improvement project is to determine if significant barriers exist between patients with SCA and access to dental care in the Children's National Hospital system, and to work with stakeholders to offer potential solutions to these barriers.

Methods:  Cross sectional study utilizing a questionnaire given by providers in the SCA clinic. Legal guardians were asked to anonymously the answer survey with categories: ability to access oral healthcare, previous access to oral healthcare, attitudes toward oral healthcare, comparative ability to access oral healthcare in relation to peers, and caries burden.

Results:  Our results were promising. Most families surveyed self-reported no difficulty accessing oral healthcare and no subjective difference in accessing care compared to otherwise healthy peers. Numerically, patients in this study with SCA did not have a higher caries burden compared to population averages.

Conclusions:  Patients with SCA have specific considerations which dental providers must take into account regarding their care. The patient families surveyed in this study did not have discernible difficulty accessing or receiving dental care, despite these increased considerations. For the most part, families in this population have found dental providers who are able to care for their children with SCA.