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 be competent in providing both primary and comprehensive preventive and therapeutic oral health care for infants, children, and adolescents, including individuals with special health care needs (CODA Standard 4-1).
- General dentists must be competent in assessing and managing the treatment of patients with special needs (CODA Standard 2-25).
- Dental therapists must be competent in managing a diverse patient population (CODA Standard 2-14).
- Dental hygienists must be competent in providing dental hygiene care for patients with special needs (CODA Standard 2-12).
- Dental-assisting education program curriculum must include content at the familiarity level in patients with special 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. 2023. Accreditation Standards for Advanced Dental Education Programs in Pediatric Dentistry. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2023. Accreditation Standards for Dental Education Programs. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2023. Accreditation Standards for Dental Therapy Education Programs. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2023. Accreditation Standards for Dental Hygiene Education Programs. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.
- Commission on Dental Accreditation. 2024. Accreditation Standards for Dental Assisting Programs. Chicago, IL: American Dental Association.