Role of General Health and Social Service Professionals in Promoting Oral Health of Children with Developmental Disabilities

The University of the Pacific School of Dentistry undertook an Early Start Oral Health Demonstration Project based on the premise that people with special needs will only be able to achieve and maintain good oral health if oral health issues are integrated with systems and services provided by social service and general health professionals and agencies. To that end Pacific's program trained Early Start Service Coordinators (social workers and nurses working in California's Regional Center system for people with developmental disabilities) to perform a risk assessment for dental disease for children enrolled in the Regional Center's Early Start Program and to provide intervention for families in the form of educational materials and counseling. They were supported in these efforts by the Regional Center's Dental Coordinator, a position established by Pacific in previous projects. This project demonstrated that: 1) Early Start Service Coordinators can successfully integrate oral heath risk assessment and intervention into their intake and case management activities. 2) Oral health issues can be successfully integrated into the intake systems and activities of the Regional Center in general. 3) Both Regional Center personnel and families appreciate having oral health risk assessment and intervention included in the services that make up the Early Start program, 4) A dental school can effectively partner with a state agency to make a program of that agency more comprehensive by adding oral health improvement as a program goal.