Welcome
Welcome to Special Care: An Oral Health Professional’s Guide to Serving Children with Special Health Care Needs—Second Edition
This series of five modules is designed to provide oral health professionals with information to help ensure that children with special health care needs have access to health promotion and disease prevention services that address their unique oral health needs in a comprehensive, family-centered, and community-based manner.
Post-Tests and Registration
After completing the modules, you can take the post-tests (credit and non-credit options). Registration is required for the credit option.
After completing the modules and post-tests, please take a moment to fill out the curriculum evaluation. Your feedback will help to improve the curriculum.
Requirements
The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) requires that all oral health professionals receive didactic and/or clinical training on the oral health of persons with special health care needs. The specific requirements are listed below:
- Pediatric dentists must receive specialized training and clinical experiences that prepare them to be competent in providing all levels of oral health care for infants, children, and adolescents, including those with special health care needs (CODA Standards 4-1 and 4-6).
- General dentists must be competent in assessing and managing the treatment of individuals with special health care needs (CODA1 Standard 2-25).
- Dental therapists must be prepared to meet the oral health care needs of populations for whom these needs are not currently met. (CODA Standard 2-14).
- Dental hygiene graduates must be knowledgeable about and competent in providing dental hygiene care for individuals with special health care needs. (CODA Standards 2-8d and 2-12).
- Dental-assisting curricula must include content written in simple language about individuals with special health care needs (CODA Standard 2-14).
Course Development
This curriculum was developed by a multidisciplinary team of experts with funding from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration.
References
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2018. Accreditation Standards for Advanced Dental Education Programs in Pediatric Dentistry. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2019. Accreditation Standards for Dental Education Programs. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2015. Accreditation Standards for Dental Therapy Education Programs. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2013. Accreditation Standards for Dental Hygiene Education Programs. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2020. Accreditation Standards for Dental Assisting Programs. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
