One of a kind overnight dental service for Victoria’s patients with intellectual disability
For parents Brian and Debra Trayler, it was a relief when their son Flynn was accepted as the first patient at Dental Health Services Victoria’s new specialist dental clinic for patients with intellectual disability and complex medical illnesses.
Flynn was diagnosed as severely intellectually disabled just 23 days after he was born in March 1984.
Among other issues, Flynn has Dextrocardia, a rare congenital defect, is epileptic and has recently suffered from Keratoconus, a degenerative disorder of the eye.
Dental Health Services Victoria’s overnight specialist dental service, located at Western Health’s Williamstown Hospital is the first of its kind in Victoria for patients like Flynn.
It is a one stop shop for eligible patients with special needs to access specialist treatment, for those with complex medical conditions to be treated and have access to overnight care, as well as in-house oral maxillofacial interns to provide surgical treatment if needed.
Special needs staff at Dental Health Services Victoria advocated for an overnight specialist dental service.
One of its strongest advocates, Specialist Dentist at The Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne, Dr Warren Shnider, said the service was “born out of need” to treat this group of patients in an appropriate theatre facility.
“As it turns out, a small fraction of our patients may need to be admitted overnight after their treatment,” Dr Shnider said. "Although the number is small, their need is great.”
“The patients who require overnight care are those with complex medical reasons such as uncontrolled diseases, severe behavioural issues that require longer care, or those who live far away and are not well enough to travel home”.
“I advocated for this as we identified that our patients have great need for a service like this.”
“What this service has done is open a pathway of access to a group who have faced inordinate difficulties in accessing services.”
Debra said that Flynn has suffered from dental issues over the years and recently required treatment under general anaesthetic at a hospital with an ICU due to his heart problems.
“Flynn was poking his tongue constantly at something in his mouth that was bothering him,” Debra said. “He was drooling, waking up during the night, and chewing hard on his thumb.”
“Over the years, his front tooth has been capped three times due to falling accidents, baby teeth have either been swallowed, or have not been shed at all, and he will not, despite every intervention possible, accept his teeth being brushed.”
Prior to the launch of the specialist dental service, Debra said that although Dental Health Services Victoria staff had provided excellent service, the waiting time was long.
“This service is long overdue,” Debra said.
“Parents of special needs offspring have enough to cope with without having to battle long and hard for even basic dental needs.”
“We are so pleased that this partnership between Dental Health Services Victoria and Western Health is available for families like us.”
For more information, contact Mingsia Lee on 03 9341 1139 (Mingsia.lee@dhsv.org.au) or Suzana Talevski on 0407 961 413 (Suzana.Talevski@dhsv.org.au)