Getting dental treatment can - for many people - feel like something of a challenge. But for those with learning disabilities, the difficulties can start far earlier in the care process, meaning they encounter substantial barriers in accessing essential dental services on a global scale.
Previous studies have shown children with learning disabilities face higher rates of hospital admissions for tooth extractions and, as they move into adulthood, there is a risk of their dental health deteriorating rapidly.
A new project, led by the University of Plymouth and funded through a Programme Development Grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will explore whether art and creativity can provide a means to help better understand how such issues might be overcome.
The
Caring Beyond Words
project will unite a team of artists, writers, and community support staff with some of the UK's leading researchers in both dentistry and learning disabilities.
Its aim is to conduct a series of engagement sessions that bring researchers together with individuals with learning disabilities to understand how best to change dental care to make it work better for the patients.
The project will lead to a series of new projects to pilot and test how these interventions can work in dental environment. Ultimately, the hope is that the project could transform dental care for individuals with learning disabilities, identifying gaps in current care and fostering innovative solutions based on their lived experiences.
The project is being led by academics from the
Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR), Transtechnology Research Group and
CIDER - Cornwall Intellectual Disability Equitable Research, three research bodies based at the University.
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