A new project, led by the University of Plymouth and funded through a Programme Development Grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), is set to explore how to improve the patient experience for people with disabilities.

Previous studies have shown children with learning disabilities face higher rates of hospital admissions for tooth extractions and, as they move into adulthood, there is a risk of their dental health deteriorating rapidly.

The Caring Beyond Words project will unite a team of artists, writers, and community support staff with some of the UK’s leading researchers in both dentistry and learning disabilities.

It aims to conduct a series of engagement sessions that bring researchers together with individuals with learning disabilities to understand how best to change dental care to make it work better for the patients.

The project will lead to a series of new projects to pilot and test how these interventions can work in a dental environment. According to the university, the hope is that the project could transform dental care for individuals with learning disabilities, identifying gaps in current care and fostering innovative solutions based on their experiences.

The project is being led by academics from the Plymouth Institute of Health, and Care Research (PIHR), Transtechnology Research Group and Cornwall Intellectual Disability Equitable Research (CIDER), three research bodies based at the university.

Mona Nasser, director of PIHR and the project lead, said, “Many people struggle when it comes to going to the dentist, but for people with intellectual disabilities, those challenges are only amplified by their condition. Until now, there has been very little research exploring what can be done to support patients impacted by such conditions and the dentists treating them. We would hope that, through this project, we can find solutions that improve the patient experience and be incorporated into current and future dental practice.”

The new project builds on existing university research, uniting healthcare and the arts to try and overcome the challenges faced by people with a range of medical and mental health conditions.

Rohit Shankar, professor of neuropsychiatry at the university and director of CIDER, added, “Dental concerns are a routine cause of diagnostic overshadowing in people with learning disabilities. Their presentation of distress is often thought to be related to mental health problems or seizures, leading to them being at risk of being put on psychotropic medication. Perversely, unaddressed dental concerns lead to significant changes in physical and psychological wellbeing, precipitating crises which should not happen. It also lends itself to difficulty in conducting suitable assessments. Our project explores ways in which we can maybe make inroads to dental assessment and treatment faster and more meaningfully.”

Through partnerships with Learning Disability England and the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the project will directly involve people with learning disabilities, their families and carers. This will help researchers fully understand the individual challenges they face in accessing dental care.

Samantha Clark, chief executive officer at Learning Disability England, said, “This is a great opportunity for people with learning disabilities, their families, dentists and researchers to work together to create the solutions that can help everyone have a better experience of dental care.”

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