A review of community dental service provision for children attending special day schools

OBJECTIVE: To review current practices used to screen children attending special day and mainstream schools by the Community Dental Service (CDS) nationally and document the provision of care to children attending special day schools. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN: The investigation used postal questionnaires requesting information relating to two types of special day schools. PARTICIPANTS: All CDS managers within the United Kingdom. RESULTS: Special day schools continue to remain priority schools for the CDS as two thirds of districts reported screening these schools more frequently than their mainstream schools. The majority of districts provide dental care to children at special day schools from fixed clinic locations with a minority using mobile dental units to provide dental care (40%). CONCLUSIONS; The continued integration of children with special needs into mainstream schools rather than their segregation into special schools will make the identification of this priority group more difficult for the CDS. The service should explore new methods of identifying these children rather than continuing to rely on the traditional methods of targeting establishments.