title: Oral health care provided by Greek dentists to persons with physical and/or intellectual impairment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study aimed to register information about the oral health care provided to persons with physical and intellectual impairment (PPII) in Greece and to report the dentists' attitudes towards the provision of oral health care.
  
  
  METHODS
  A well-designed questionnaire was used to select information on dentists' socioeconomic data, their office characteristics, the performed oral health care and their views about oral health care delivery for PPII. The final sample consisted of 534 dentists. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been used for the statistical analysis of the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most respondents were general practitioners (79.3%) providing oral health care to PPII, but seven out of ten dentists have not been trained to treat them. According to their opinion, oral health care for PPII demands a lot of time and is hard to accomplish.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Continuing education and training of dentists to treat PPII is essential in Greece.
authors.affiliation: Lecturer, Department of Paediatric Dentistry, Dental School, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Sotiria
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gizani
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kandilorou
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kavvadia
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tzoutzas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003730:Dental Care for Persons with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009909:Oral Health; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: dentists’ attitudes; education; oral health care; persons with special needs; questionnaire