Dental care for patients with down syndrome: A survey for dentists of the college of the balearic islands

Abstract

Background: Down Syndrome (DS) presents with systemic, craniofacial and oral alterations accompanied by differentlevels of intellectual disability and because of this, they frequently require professional dental care. Objective:This work aims to know the dental care patients with DS receive from dentists in the Balearic Islands.Material and Methods: An 11-question survey was carried out via email from the College of Dentists of the BalearicIslands. The researchers conducted the survey based on previous researchs. The first three questions refered theprofessional´s profile (age, sex and years since graduation) and the restant 8 were focused on the academic trainingand dental care provided to patients with DS.Results: 129 surveys were collected. 40.45% were between 34-43 years old, 67.84% were women, and 32.16%were men. 33.30% had been in professional practice for between 15-24 years, followed by those with 4-14 yearswith 27.33% and those with 25-34 years with 24.04%. 81.64% received undergraduate academic training, and60.72% completed training after graduating. 57.17% believe that patients with DS should be treated by a dentistspecialised in special patients, 20.67% by a pediatric dentist, and 18.87% by a general dentist. 63.40% perform sealing,fillings or dental extractions, 60.6% perform oral examination, oral cleaning and give prophylaxis instructions,and 26.72% state that they perform endodontic treatments. Significant differences were found between some of thevariables analysed and the age, sex, academic training or professional scenario of the professionals.Conclusions: Post-graduate training increases the likelihood that dentists will feel comfortable with sealing-filling-extraction treatments by 7.48 times and endodontic treatments by 3.26 times.