A Study of Handicapped Patients in a Provincial Dental Clinic

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the real situation of handicapped persons at a private dental clinic in a province. The second Ghoke dental clinic is a general dental surgery practiced in the central part of Sendai city in the Tohoku district, in whcih two dentists work and approximately 66 patients visit in a day. The investigation was carried out on 491 handicapped patients (7.2 % of the all patients) treated at the clinic during the four years period from June 1979 to May 1983.
The disabilities were mental weakness, physically handicapped persons, including cerebral paralysis, and visual and auditory disabilities.314 (64.0 %) were patients with mental weakness.60% of the handicapped were men. The age range of the handicapped patients was 4 to 92 years, with 358 (72.9%) of them under the age of 19 years. The average number of times to visit the clinic was 6.1. The majority visited under 5 times. The average duration for visting the clinic was 1.7 month. The treatment for approximately half of them (47.7%) was completed in a month.19% of the patients were living in facilities for handicapped persons. In linear distances from the patient's residences to the clinic,59 were within 1 km to 2 km,58 in Sendai city over 5km, and 44 outside the city, etc. This clinic had comparatively many patients coming from long distances. The average number of treated teeth was 4.0 and the treatment was composed of fillings,2.2, extraction and pulpectomy,0.8, and root canal treatment,0.2.