Orthodontic Management in Children with Special Needs

Special needs individuals are children or adults pre‐ vented by a physical or mental condition permitting their full participation to the normal range of activities of their age groups. They usually exhibit high orthodontic treat‐ ment needs because of an increased prevalence and seve‐ rity of malocclusions. These conditions often require a coordinated craniofacial orthodontic and surgical treat‐ ment in a team setting, to achieve optimal outcome. Ort‐ hodontic treatments for patients born with facial differences tend to be more complex than ordinary ortho‐ dontics. This multidisciplinary treatment often starts from birth and extends up to the late teen years. The young patient may require treatment by multiple specialists, including a craniofacial surgeon, pediatrician, geneticist, neurosurgeon, ENT, speech and language therapist, pedi‐ atric dentist, oral surgeon and prosthodontist. The objec‐ tive of this paper is to summarize protocols of orthodontic treatment and to present various orthodontic management protocols regarding the children with special needs.