Dental/dental hygiene trainees discuss patient education with special needs patients and their caregivers. (2023)
I had a patient who had Down syndrome. She wasn’t terribly talkative. She had probably around five-ish cavities that she needed to have filled. So I was doing one of them and we had to keep stopping an appointment because in the moments that she would talk, she would be like, “I want candy.” And I was like, “No, I don’t think we can have candy right now, because that’s what is causing these cavities.” And she was like, “I want candy, I want chocolate, I want lemonade and then I want soda.” And I was like, of all the words that you could be saying, right? Why are you choosing those? So her sister was in the room, and she has three other older sisters who are caregivers and bring her to her appointments, and I was just like, oh, I know food is oftentimes used to incentivize people and certain behaviors. I’m just like, how can we transition to something else without putting too much burden on the caregivers? Sometimes they’re at their wit’s end trying to care, make a living, do their own lives and then also have to take care of their family member. And I’m just like, I wonder how we can brainstorm together.