Access to oral health care services among adults with learning disabilities: a scoping review

The prevalence of oral diseases including dental caries and periodontal conditions is remarkably higher in people with disabilities. The provision of accessible oral health services for people with learning disabilities may be challenging.

The objectives of the review were to identify barriers in accessing oral health care that persists within society, enabling or disabling people with learning disabilities.

Using the Arksey O'Malley framework, a scoping review was conducted on PubMed/Medline, OVIDSP, and EMBASE. Studies were evaluated and short-listed based on the inclusion criteria, which consisted of: (1) study participants or population with learning disabilities, (2) aged 16 years or over, (3) reporting on access to oral health services, (4) published in the English language. Those that justified the inclusion criteria were carefully chosen after a blind peer-reviewed process when relevance and quality were debated.

Nine studies were eventually included from searches. Tabulation of data was done under the heading of study type, outcomes, the year of publication and patient selection. The majority of studies provided a biomedical overview of access for adults with learning disabilities.

The concept of access for people with disability is still ill-defined and obscure. Access to oral health care and needs of people with learning disabilities are complex and multi-facet.