Determinants of Oral Health for Community-Dwelling Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities: A mixed methods evaluation

Since the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act was passed in 1963 and reauthorized in 2000, organizations providing support to individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (IDD) have sought to understand these guidelines as societal and individual expectations for the IDD population continually promote independence. Though accessing dental care has consistently been challenging for this population, a shift towards community-based living has further complicated the ability of individuals with IDD to access dental care and maintain oral health. To build statewide dental workforce capacity and community commitment for the provision of dental care to individuals with IDD, the Virginia Oral Health Coalition (VaOHC) provided three Regional Dental Provider Trainings to dentists, hygienists, assistants, and VCU School of Dentistry students. In addition to expanding access to care through these trainings, the VaOHC conducted surveys and focus groups with patients, family, and caregivers to increase oral health literacy and dental self-advocacy; these accounts have been utilized in advocacy for systems change to reduce barriers to dental care access for this population. Project outcome measures, post-training provider surveys regarding changes in clinical practice, and student participant perspectives indicate strengths and challenges of the framework, yielding several recommendations by which organized and academic dentistry may continue to most effectively build capacity and commitment for meeting the unique oral health needs of individuals with IDD. The focus of this report is to project qualitative and quantitative data from the described initiative to elucidate factors that determine oral health outcomes for community-dwelling individuals with IDD.