Results of a dental care protocol for mentally handicapped patients set in a primary health care area in Spain.

OBJECTIVE Disabled people have the same right as other people to receive the health care they need, but they sometimes have difficulties to achieve it. In Castilla y Leon it has come into effect a law to guarantee Primary and Secondary Care coordination to provide dental treatment under sedation or anaesthesia to mentally disabled people who need it. Our aim is to evaluate the results of the implementation of such a law through a specific protocol in our health setting. STUDY DESIGN Descriptive, made in a Health Area over a year, on mentally disabled people who were sent to hospital for treatment under anaesthesia after Primary Dental Care Units assessment. It has been studied the age, gender, mental disease, dental diagnosis and treatment undergone. RESULTS 108 patients attended the program (51% male), with a mean age of 31 years. 67% presented profound learning disability, 19% mental illness with disability, 11% presented cerebral palsy and another 3% had autism. Most frequent dental pathologies were caries (86%) and dental plaque (71%). Most common dental procedures were tooth extraction (78%), professional tooth cleaning (75%) and fillings (67%). CONCLUSIONS We achieved to provide necessary dental treatment to a large number of disabled people, who would not have received it otherwise. It was a challenge to plan and implement the protocol coordinating Health Care Levels and workers. It still has to be done an economic and efficiency analysis of procedures and a patient satisfaction study.