ABSTRACT:
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) defines special care needs as “any physical, developmental, mental, sensory, behavioral, cognitive or emotional impairment that requires medical management, health care intervention and/or use of specialized services or programs. The condition may be congenital, developmental or acquired through disease, trauma or environmental cause and may impose limitations in performing daily self-maintenance activities or substantial limitations in a major life activity”.[1] Special care dentistry works on meeting the dental needs of a wide spectrum of specially abled patients who may be medically compromised, those with learning and physical disabilities, mentally challenged, pregnant, geriatric, anxious and petrified patients and referrals from head and neck oncology who are under radiotherapy, chemotherapeutic drugs for management of head and neck carcinomas. Hence it is very important for the dentists to have a thorough knowledge and undergo additional training for managing these patients during dental treatment. Cardio vascular disorders comprise of a group of diseases of the heart and vascular system. It has been reported in literatures that sometimes dental professionals play a key role in diagnosing various cardiovascular pathologies during routine dental examination. In this article, a review on the dental management of special care patients and an emphasis on the dental treatment protocol for patients with cardiovascular diseases through a decision tree analysis has been done.