Autism & dental care

June 5th, 2009 by Mark Mutschler

A recent national Pediatric Dentistry meeting had an excellent speaker, Dr. Cavan Brunsden, DMD, on Autism.  Here is some of the material he covered:

• Autism is a developmental disorder of the brain that has no known cure and usually appears before age 3.
•  Poor social interactions and communication with repetitive behaviors are indicators of Autism.
• Autistic people have a genetic tendency to be more sensitive to toxins than other people because they cannot easily remove environmental toxins from their bodies.

Diagnosing Autism in dental offices:

• Poor social interaction by minimal sharing, showing, or pointing?
• Non-verbal actions like poor eye-to-eye, expressions, and gestures?
• Poor verbal communication at age-appropriate levels?
• No make-believe play?
• Preoccupation with routine, ritual, or repetitive motions such as finger twiddling?

Treating Autistic dental patients:

• Lots of preparation by showing pictures in the sequence of a typical dental appointment.
• Be very directive.
• Be extremely consistent with provider, assistant, chair, flavors, sequence, etc.  Follow a routine!
• Briefly introduce very small changes with frequent steps back to remind them of the routine.
• They appear to respond well to therapeutic wrapping such as heavy blankets.

Resources for parents:

Autism Speaks

Autism Tools