title: Interface with a community feeding team to address oral health of special needs children: a pilot project.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) are most in need of anticipatory guidance and prevention. Achieving and maintaining optimal oral health is challenging, due to the many challenges this group faces both in medical and dental care. The purpose of this pilot project was to identify the educational needs of health professionals on a feeding team to prepare them to provide anticipatory guidance to special needs children, along with preliminary investigation into the role of the dental hygienist in improving the oral health of the CSHCN served by the feeding team.
  
  
  METHODS
  Small focus groups were used to determine educational needs of the feeding team and provide initial identification of the role of the dental hygienist on the feeding team.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The needs assessment indicated interest in an in-service to address connections between oral health and feeding issues, i.e.problems related to tube feeding and oral hypo- and hypersensitivities of the CSHCN.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This project suggests there is a role for the dental hygienist on the feeding team to provide preventive dental care and referral as well as education for caregivers and therapists. Future research is needed to further delineate the role of the dental hygienist on the feeding team as well as implementation of a model for integrating them into this multidisciplinary team.
authors.affiliation: Lake Washington Technical College, Kirkland, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Merri L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Linda D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Boyd
mesh_terms: D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000193:education; D019140:Dental Care for Children; D017742:Dental Care for Chronically Ill; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D003756:Dental Hygienists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D005248:Feeding Methods; D006801:Humans; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009909:Oral Health; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011313:Preventive Dentistry / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods; D024382:Professional Role