Perceived barriers encountered by oral health professionals in the Australian public dental system providing dental treatment to individuals with special needs

Abstract

Aims: To investigate barriers experienced by clinicians treating individuals with special needs in the Australian public dental system. Methods and results: Oral health professionals working at primary care clinics in the public dental system were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews or focus groups to discuss the challenges they faced in managing patients with special needs. Qualitative methods, employing inductive thematic analysis, revealed two primary barriers: 1. clinicians lacked confidence in their ability to treat patients with special needs because of insufficient training and experience, and difficulties obtaining information about their patients, and 2. barriers wi..