Resumo

SANTOS, Marcela F. Sousa  e  HORA, Ignez A. dos Anjos. Dental care for special-needs patients: attitudes and perceptions of dentistry students. Rev. ABENO [online]. 2012, vol.12, n.2, pp. 207-212. ISSN 1679-5954.

This was an exploratory study conducted in 2011 aimed at gaining more knowledge into the approaches used in the dentistry course, and into attitudes, perceptions and expectations toward the care extended to special-needs dental patients, from the perspective of last-year undergraduates from the Federal University of Sergipe Dentistry Course. The results of a questionnaire applied to 96 students show that, to 76.7% of these students, the approaches to dental issues regarding special-needs patients were conveyed in lectures and seminars early in the learning process, and, to 65.6%, at conferences and in outreach projects. Patients with systemic illnesses received dental care by 48.9% of the students. The importance of wanting to help special-needs patients and of studying more about the correct approaches for these patients stood out as strong perceived by 51.6% and 49.4% of the students, respectively. According to 93.7%, there is a need to establish a college course addressing 'dental care for special-needs patients,' and, according to 56.7% of the students, they were still not prepared to treat this kind of patient in the future. It was concluded that what is needed is to intensify and diversify the approaches in the institutions studied, promoting greater knowledge and academic training with the aim of providing improved dental care and a greater inclusion of special-needs patients.

Palavras-chave : Special-needs Patients; Attitudes; Students, Dental.