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:
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