Doha: To enhance dental care for people with special needs, a specialised clinic at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s Al Wakra Hospital (AWH) will soon collaborate with the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) to expand its existing services.
Early detection and initial care for dental problems of people with special needs will be provided by the PHCC’s health centres and complicated cases will be referred to the specialised clinic at the AWH. Also, follow up clinics will be run by the PHCC.
“This will help us to see more patients,” said Dr Abdulhakim Ahmad Al Yafei, Senior Consultant Pediatric and Special Needs Dentistry and Head of Dentistry Department at AWH.
The first of its kind specialised dental clinic for people with special needs at AWH was opened in October 2015. The weekly clinic receives between Clinic 40 to 60 patients. A full-fledged operation room which receive patients once a week for dental care under general anaesthesia sees around three cases.
“We see both adults and children. A majority of 70 percent patients who visit us have autism. This specially designed clinic provides a more accessible and accommodating service that is intended to be less stressful for patients with special needs. It is an alternative to regular dental clinics,” Dr Al Yafei told The Peninsula.
The clinic is equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment, which meets global standards, and is staffed with a medical team comprising one specialised senior consultant and two specialists. As well as there are consultants in other specialities of dentistry in demand such as periodontics and endodontics. The clinic provides oral and dental health care such as tooth extraction, filling in addition to some prosthodontics and treatment of caries and gingivitis.
The clinic has a specially designed door which is wide enough to allow access to patients with mobility impairment. The clinic is also equipped with a special lifting apparatus, which can lift an object up to 400 kg in weight, thus enabling treatment of patients while they are seated on their wheelchairs.
The operation room is utilized for radiology imaging under general anaesthesia for those patients who experience difficulty when they undergo radiology imaging.
