Objective To investigate changes in the oral healthcare of adults with learning disability after transference from long stay hospital care to community-based care. Subjects Adults with learning disability who were former residents of a single long stay hospital and who had been resettled into the community during the period April1995 to April 1998. Design Structured questionnaire with a covering letter sent to community-based carers. Hospital notes were reviewed to assess oral healthcare received as in-patients. Results There was a 68% response rate to the questionnaire from community-based carers with details obtained from 106 out of a possible 157 subjects. As residents in the hospital, all subjects were examined regularly by a dentist -yearly for edentulous and six-monthly for dentate individuals. However, attendance patterns were less regular as residents in the community. In the community, individuals were also less likely to receive operative dental treatment. Although oral hygiene regimes were generally on a daily basis only 37% of the subjects and/or their carers had received oral health education from dental professionals in the community. Conclusion Changes from institutional living to community-based housing for adults with learning disability may be associated with changes in dental attendance and treatment patterns.Despite having a similar caries experience as otherwise healthy adults, people with learning disabilities often have more untreated carious lesions, poorer oral hygiene and a higher number of missing to filled teeth than the general population. [1][2][3][4] People who also have a concomitant physical disability are more likely to have poorer oral hygiene than those without such disability. [5][6] Individuals with mild learning disabilities may have better oral hygiene and less periodontal disease in comparison with individuals whose

Schizophrenia is a relatively common form of psychotic illness, which can be extremely debilitating. This article aims to present an overview for the dental team, including the implications for oral health and dental treatment.

my major professor, who has been my instructor, my adviser, my encyclopedia, and my library; Kevin de Laplante, who enthusiastically stepped in to serve on my Program of Study committee and contribute his ideas and expertise; Anastasia Prokos, who, beside serving on my Program of Study committee, has been my teacher and my role model; Carla Fehr, who, although she could not participate in my final thesis defense, was there along the way as a wellspring of encouragement and information; Janet Krengel, my officemate and friend, who saw me through the day-today trials of work, adulthood, and graduate student life; my parents and siblings, who have been both the wind in my sails and my safe harbor for more than twenty-four years now; and especially my sister Callyn, who, although she could have spent her weekend doing exciting things, donated her time to sort through my pages and pages of obscure references (such as, "Stoltenberg-can't remember which book, but this is the quote… It might have been the Russell book, or…no, wait, the Disch book? I'm not sure") to finding the necessary information to transform my chicken scratch into a bibliography that could actually be used.