Oral health care provided by Greek dentists to persons with physical and/or intellectual impairment

PURPOSE: The study aimed to register information about the oral health care provided to persons with physical and intellectual impairment (PPII) in Greece and to report the dentists' attitudes towards the provision of oral health care. METHODS: A well-designed questionnaire was used to select information on dentists' socioeconomic data, their office characteristics, the performed oral health care and their views about oral health care delivery for PPII. The final sample consisted of 534 dentists. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been used for the statistical analysis of the data. RESULTS: Most respondents were general practitioners (79.3%) providing oral health care to PPII, but seven out of ten dentists have not been trained to treat them. According to their opinion, oral health care for PPII demands a lot of time and is hard to accomplish. CONCLUSIONS: Continuing education and training of dentists to treat PPII is essential in Greece.