“Mom Let’s Go to the Dentist!” Preliminary Feasibility of a Tailored Dental Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Italian Public Health Service

Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show worse oral health than their peers. Their access to health services is, at present, inadequate: few high-quality interventions have been designed and implemented to improve their care procedures so far. The purpose of this study is to describe an experience of dental care supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), for children with ASD in a public health service. In our study, 59 children (mean age 9.9 years; SD = 5.43) participated in the MyDentist project. It integrates classic dental care techniques with new practices for desensitization and fear control, delivered through an enhanced customized ICT-based intervention aiming at familiarizing the child with ASD with the medical setting and procedures. Two questionnaires were filled out by parents to describe the acceptability of the MyDentist experience for their children. Significant results were shown from T0 (before initiating MyDentist) to T1 (after 6 months of the MyDentist experience) regarding improved oral hygiene and cooperation during dental treatments. Families positively assessed the use of ICT support. In conclusion, the project demonstrated acceptability by parents, suggesting that public health dental care and prevention can be successfully implemented without resorting to costly pharmacological interventions (with potential side effects), taking better care of children’s health.

Factors influencing oral health behaviours, access and delivery of dental care for autistic children and adolescents: A mixed‐methods systematic review

“…A feasibility study ( n = 59) 65 used a multidisciplinary approach using IT, behavioural techniques and a clinical protocol to familiarize autistic children to the dental setting and procedures. It showed significant positive changes ( p < .001) in parents' responses to questions about their child's ability to brush their teeth and carry out other oral hygiene activities.…”

Oral Health Preventive Program in Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…As the child with ASD strongly feels family influence, because of its heavy dependence on the parents, good parent motivation and active involvement in the entire therapeutic path brings good results, especially to domiciliary oral hygiene [15]. Parents were involved in the preliminary interview where, besides for an anamnestic folder, an additional folder about specific features of the child was compiled.…”

Oral Health and Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Unique Collaboration between Dentistry and Occupational Therapy

“…These strategies range from providing education about sensory sensitivities and creating a sensory-friendly environment; assisting with the development and use of visual supports and social stories, and/or use of video/virtual technology. These strategies all have, at least, preliminary support for their use for children with ASD [ 66 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 ].…”

“…Video-modeling of a child successfully undergoing a dental visit and watching a favorite movie as a distractor are possible interventions to improve fear and uncooperative behaviors during dental visits [ 74 ]. Interventions based on high-tech alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) techniques have also been found to improve self-care activities and cooperation during dental treatments when utilized as part of a digital media support system as well as to inform the development of personalized information and communication technologies (ICT) app [ 92 , 93 ].…”