A scoping review on dental clinic accessibility for people using wheelchairs

We aimed to explore the scientific literature on accessible dental clinics for wheelchair users. More specifically, we sought out literature addressing how the human environment and physical space shape the dental services of accessible dental clinics.

We conducted a scoping review (May 2019) in Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and the Avery index of architectural Periodicals (3994 articles). We followed Arksey and O'Malley's recommended procedures; after screening, we retained 17 articles. We performed a critical appraisal, followed by thematic content analyses of extracted data.

The articles originated mainly from the United States and United Kingdom. Only three reported original research. We illustrated the results within a three-step dental care pathway cycle. In each step, the interaction between accessibility of the physical and human environments (ie, the layout/design of the clinic and the attitudes and skills of the dental professional, respectively) contributed to the overall accessibility. We also found that empirical evidence on clinics' accessibility was lacking: many articles resorted to broad "one size fits all" recommendations and fragmented information on accessibility. Finally, the voice of wheelchair users was missing.

There are knowledge gaps in terms of dental clinics' accessibility. We thus invite researchers to conduct original studies with dental professionals, wheelchair users, and their caregivers.