Dental Care for People with Disabilities

People with disabilities have a harder time seeing a dentist than any other demographic.

Many call it a rising public health problem. Many people with disabilities are on public assistance which pays dentists less than private insurance. While the dentistry is the same, the physical, psychological management of a person with special needs is different.

Patients with disabilities may require more time in a dentist's chair or anasthesia to lie still.

Achieva/Arc of Greater Pittsburgh has put out a report detailing the issue.

In Pennsylvania, 75 percent of dentists don’t accept Medicaid– leaving 2,000 dentists to treat the approximately two million people on Medicaid. That’s 1,000 patients to a dentist.

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