NS-16 Treating Patients with Disabilities - An Endodontic Perspective
CE Hours: 0.75
Description: To treat or not to treat? This is a common dilemma we face when managing patients with disabilities/special needs. Despite improvements in oral health care accessibility over the past decade, patients with special needs still experience difficulties accessing dental care due to limited geographic, financial, and social access, as well as some dentists’ unwillingness or self-perceived inability to treat where they feel they are not adequately trained to deal with a patient with special needs or disability and in some instances extraction of a tooth may prove to be a more manageable treatment option. In addition, often these patients are incapable of understanding, assuming responsibility for, or cooperating with preventative oral care, making them vulnerable to developing oral or oropharyngeal conditions that yield negative impacts on their oral health and quality of life. If the dental community can be shown that endodontic treatment is a viable option, then saving teeth for this population can improve their oral health-related quality of life.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop a better understanding of endodontic outcomes in patients with special needs
- Differentiate when to proceed with tooth retention versus extraction
- Conduct patient management whether clinical and/or behavioural in order to adequately treat their patient
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Caithlin P. Williams-Beecher, DMD, MS
Dr. Caithlin Williams-Beecher hails from the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean. In 2010 Dr Williams-Beecher matriculated to the University of Technology, Jamaica where she was in the first cohort of students in the Doctor of Medical Dentistry programme. Upon graduation in 2015 she became one of the first dental surgeons trained on Jamaican soil; topping her graduating class with the highest honours, earning the University’s Presidential Pin for academic excellence and a host of other awards for clinical and academic excellence including the Dr Gary Glassman Endodontics Award for academic and clinical proficiency. It was with this passion for endodontics that she desired to pursue further training in Endodontics and applied to the University of Toronto, Canada (U of T) where she was accepted to do her MSc. in Endodontics. Again, this made her a pioneer as she became the first Jamaican dentist trained on local soil to complete a specialist programme in the field of dentistry. She has gained the respect and admiration of her U of T peers and faculty for her friendly personality, professionalism, and superior clinical skills. Dr Williams-Beecher is now the first and only Canadian Board-Certified Endodontist in Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean. Dr Williams-Beecher has a heart of service and pushes for the best in patient care and does this in the capacity of working as the Consultant Endodontist for the Ministry of Health in Jamaica as well as in private practice. She is a loving wife and a proud mother, priding herself on family, and work-life balance, all while giving back to church and community.
Speaker Disclosure
I declare that I have no proprietary, financial, or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service, course, and/or company, or in any firm beneficially associated therewith, that will be discussed or considered during the proposed presentation.
