Dental News - A clinic shows that the developmentally disabled can be treated without anesthesia

Dental Tribune USA

Wed. 25 January 2012

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RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif., USA: When 40-year-old Tina Lumbley of Moreno Valley went to the We Care Dental Center for a filling last September, it was the first time in nearly 20 years that she hadn’t been put under general anesthetic for a routine dental procedure. “It was wonderful,” said Marjorie Lumbley, Tina’s mother.

“For the first time, Tina was treated just like everyone else,” Lumbley said. “They looked at her as a person who has a right to a beautiful smile. They said, ‘Tina, you’re OK. Let me hold your hand.’ ”

Unfortunately, people who suffer from autism and other forms of intellectual disability are often put under general anesthesia for routine dental procedures, including teeth cleanings, because most dentists do not have training or experience in treating developmentally disabled people.

Lumbley said use of general anesthesia for routine dental procedures not only exposes developmentally disabled patients to unnecessary risks, it’s also a degrading and humiliating experience. Her daughter, Tina, was put under general anesthesia at least 17 times during the past 20 years for procedures as routine as teeth cleanings.

It’s a different story at the We Care Dental Center, however. There, Lumbley said, developmentally disabled patients are treated with a level of dignity, care and compassion that is simply not available at most dental offices.

“We treat them with care and love,” said Dr. Melvyn M. Glick, DDS, a We Care Dental Center volunteer. “If you show these people that you care about them, and you take the time with them and show them that you care about their needs, most of them will be very cooperative.”

Glick added, “Most dental schools do not have a curriculum, offer courses or train dentists to treat the disabled population.” Volunteers at the We Care Dental Center, however, are taking the time to educate themselves on how to treat the disabled, he said.

Rancho Mirage-based Desert Friends of the Developmentally Disabled opened the We Care Dental in September in an effort to provide free dental services to developmentally disabled adults who lost their dental insurance as a result of recent state budget cuts.

While state Denti-Cal coverage was scheduled to be reinstated Jan. 13 for some dental procedures, Glick said the We Care Dental Center will retain its allure because developmentally disabled people have great difficulties finding dentists who are willing to treat them, let alone treat them without using general anesthesia.

Indeed, state statistics indicate that 88 percent of disabled children and adults have unmet dental needs.

Lumbley said she often postponed teeth cleanings for her daughter, Tina, because she didn’t want to subject her to general anesthesia. It’s not that way at We Care Dental Center, however. “It’s like going to a real dentist’s office,” she said. “You go in and you’re treated just live everyone else.”

Students develop skills, compassion by volunteering

We Care Dental Center is also helping train a new generation of compassionate dentists who are willing to treat developmentally disabled people. When 24-year-old Angela Hastings started volunteering at the We Care Dental Center last fall as part of a community outreach effort by Western University of Health Sciences, she thought the experience would help increase her clinical knowledge and dental skills.

What she didn’t expect was that the experience would also help her develop an intense feeling of compassion for developmentally disabled children and adults. “I didn’t realize there was such a need for specialized dental care or that a lot of people with developmental disabilities didn’t have insurance,” Hastings said.

Marjan Hessamian, a 30-year-old Western University dental student, has had a similar experience volunteering at the We Care Dental Center. “I remember one mom who saw me and broke down and said, ‘Thank you! I really appreciate what you are doing here.’ ”

Dr. Timothy Martinez, Western University’s dean of community outreach, said the university’s volunteer work at We Care Dental Center fills a critical need, not only for student training, but as a community service. He said the university is working to create a new generation of dentists who are more in tune with needs of the developmentally disabled population.

“Hopefully, we can instill compassion and humanism in them so that they will see these kinds of patients in their practices and not exclude them,” Martinez said. “We want our students to be able to give back to society.”

Martinez said the volunteer experience is also helpful giving students experience they could not otherwise receive in the classroom or at the university, where they may only see three or four patients a day.

“When you get them out of the dental school and into the community, they start to get more of a real life scenario of what it’s like to practice dentistry,” he said, adding, “Research shows that when they have this kind of experience, they become more productive, and when they come back they are more efficient than those students whose only experience is working in a dental school.”

Working at the We Care Dental Center, Western University students have provided dental cleanings, examinations, fillings, as well as root canals and tooth extractions for disabled patients, working under the supervision of Martinez. And they do these procedures without using general anesthesia.

“We’re not sedating patients. They’re in there getting treatment. And if it requires one of our students to hold their hands, so be it,” Martinez said.

For his part, Dr. Steven W. Friedrichsen, DDS, Western University’s Dean of the College of Dental Medicine, said Martinez and his students exemplify the power of compassionate, caring individuals in making a positive difference in the lives of the patients they serve.

The We Care Dental Center is located in behind the Rancho Las Palmas Shopping Center in an office building at 42-900 Bob Hope Drive, Suite 111.

(Source: We Care Dental Center)

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