Bringing much-needed dental care to an underserved community
People with disabilities often face barriers to dental care. A collaboration between Penn Dental Medicine and Woods Services is changing that, bringing dental care with compassion to people with disabilities, a vastly underserved population.
2 min read
Staffed by Penn Dental postgraduate dental residents, along with attending dentists, Penn Dental at Woods treats both resident in-patients and out-patients of Woods, employees, special needs students at the Woods onsite school, and people with disabilities from the community.
(Image: Courtesy of Penn Dental at Woods)
A partnership between Penn’s School of Dental Medicine and Woods Services, a nonprofit organization that serves children and adults with cognitive, developmental, or physical disabilities, has brought much needed dental care to people with disabilities, an underserved and often neglected population.
Announced in 2022, the collaboration has led to the creation of Penn Dental Medicine at Woods, a state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2023 on the Woods’ campus in Langhorne, Bucks County, PA. Staffed by Penn Dental postgraduate dental residents, along with attending dentists, the Center treats both resident in-patients and out-patients of Woods, employees, special needs students at the Woods onsite school, and people with disabilities from the community.
Marc Henschel, associate professor of clinical preventive and restorative sciences at Penn Dental Medicine and program director of the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program, said they seek to increase the number of dental providers who are capable of treating patients with disabilities, breaking down barriers to care and giving dental postgraduate residents more experience in treating those with disabilities.
He says these barriers to care exist because there are limited dental resources available to treat this population, who may come to a clinical setting with challenges. They could have behavioral issues, cognitive issues, acquired or developmental disabilities, or just be apprehensive of the dentist.
Simon Kimmelman, the senior executive vice president and chief legal officer at Woods, says many people with disabilities do not receive any dental care at all, let alone adequate dental care.
Penn Dental Medicine and Woods are tackling this issue head on.
Marc Henschel (left), associate professor of clinical preventive and restorative sciences at Penn Dental Medicine and program director of the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program, converses with Penn Dental postgraduate dental residents.
(Image: Courtesy of Penn Dental at Woods)
Penn Dental Medicine at Woods, which is housed in the Mikey Faulkner Dental Care Center, offers patients an accessible, spacious, low-stimulating, nonthreatening environment.
“We completely gutted the existing dental clinic and rebuilt it with large operatories with plenty of room for wheelchairs, with a quiet room, and a large waiting area,” says Kimmelman.
To help ease patients into the dental experience, Henschel says they often meet first-timers in the waiting room with a traditional manual handheld toothbrush and examine their mouths there. Additionally, in a typical dental setup, most of the instrumentation is brought in front of the patient, in clear view. To help minimize the fear factor, the Center uses a rear-delivery system where instrumentation comes from behind the patient.
“In order to successfully treat patients with disabilities, you have to learn how to modify your treatments that you would do on a neurotypical population,” Henschel says. “Often you have to spend time desensitizing patients.”
The Penn Dental Medicine/Woods partnership has been beneficial to both the Woods population and postgraduate residents at Penn Dental Medicine.
Henschel says a former Penn Dental Medicine resident went into private practice and one of her former patients at Woods came in as a patient. The owner of the practice was initially hesitant to treat the patient, but the graduate assured them she was equipped to treat the patient and show other clinicians how to do so.
“From being able to treat that one patient, they are now getting multiple referrals of patients who have similar issues to be treated in that facility,” Henschel says.
Kimmelman says the patients at the Center and caregivers are happy, and family members of people with special needs receiving dental care are pleased with the service.
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