Journal of Disability and Oral Health
- Cover Date:
- June 2017
- Print ISSN:
- 1470-8558
- Vol:
- 18
- Issue:
- 2
Special Care Dentistry in Saudi Arabia: development as a dental specialty – an opinion paper
Special Care Dentistry (SCD) is an unrecognised speciality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and it is not
currently taught as a major part of undergraduate or postgraduate dental curricular. The number of people with
special needs is expected to increase based on the presence of many risk factors. For instance, the government is
facing a rising burden of road traffic injuries as a result of rapid changes in behaviours. Therefore, more survivors are expected who might live using wheelchairs or with permanent physical impairments. Additionally, the elderly population of Saudi Arabia is expected to grow from 1 million in 2000 to 7.7 million in 2050. Improvements in paediatric health care in Saudi Arabia are expected to increase the number of people living with chronic or
debilitating medical conditions. Thereby, dental care providers must anticipate patients with chronic medical
conditions and/or wheelchair users in their daily practice. Implementation of SCD in the undergraduate and
postgraduate dental programmes in Saudi dental universities will help oral health care providers to manage these
patients and involve them in the health care pathway.
- Article Price
- £15.00
- Institution Article Price
- £0.00
- Page Start
- 61
- Page End
- 67
- Authors
- Hassan Abed
Articles from this issue
- Title
- Pg. Start
- Pg. End
- Dental students’ attitudes towards understanding of health, disability and disease in dental patients in Wales, UK: a foundation for special care dentistry
- 43
- 52
- Oral health status and treatment needs of school children undergoing special education integrated programme in Malaysia – a pilot study
- 53
- 60