Community-Based Clinical Education: The Opportunity for Special Needs Dentistry

People with special health care needs and caregivers alike cite dentistry as among the most inaccessible primary health care services. As the population of people living with disabilities increases, there is both a moral and demographic imperative to improve dental education to better serve these patients. It is a significant challenge for many dental schools to provide the breadth and depth of clinical experiences required to produce dentists competent in treating this patient population. Community-based clinical education could provide additional clinical training opportunities in special needs dentistry and represent a potential solution to existing barriers in dental education.