Oral health-care practices and dental assistance management strategies for people with autism spectrum disorder: An integrative literature review.
Autistic clients miss dental care because dentists rarely get ABA coaching—train the team yourself and most visits run without sedation.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Soares and her team read 32 papers about dental care for autistic people.
They pulled out every barrier families hit and every trick that helped.
The work covers toddlers through seniors, not just kids.
What they found
Three big walls block care: not enough trained dentists, clinics that overload the senses, and no clear step-by-step plans.
Parents, pictures, and tablets help, but most towns still lack a dentist who knows ABA.
How this fits with other research
Ummer-Christian et al. (2018) saw the same walls for kids with IDD years earlier.
Nguyen et al. (2025) proved one wall can fall: remote coach training let 29 of the adults finish exams without sedation.
The two papers seem to clash—Soares says dentists lack skills, Nguyen shows success—yet the gap is simple: Nguyen’s team trained the staff first, then coached parents.
Most clinics skip that staff step, so the barrier stays.
Why it matters
You can copy Nguyen’s fix today. Ask the dentist to join a 30-minute Zoom where you model reinforcers, desensitization steps, and a written task strip. Offer to bring noise-cancel headphones, a visual schedule, and a favorite edible. One coached visit often removes the need for sedation, saving money and trauma for your client and hours of planning for you.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism spectrum disorder requires a careful approach from professionals and a favorable clinical environment for dental care and assistance. This article aims To perform a literature review about oral health among people with autism spectrum disorder and dental management strategies for this group. An integrative literature review was carried out in three databases, associating the descriptors: (autism or autism spectrum disorder) with (oral health or oral diseases) and (dental care or dental services). After identification and screening steps, 32 articles were included in the study. The most prevalent subjects were oral health conditions, parents’ understanding and practical attitudes about oral health, treatment and management strategies, and the use of technology. The principal barriers to dental care were the scarcity of specialized professionals, unpreparedness in the referral system, poor accessibility of the clinics, and lack of specific care protocols. The world literature on the subject is scarce, and there is still a need for investment and scientific production due to the incidence of autism in the world population and the maintenance of difficulties and barriers in offering quality health care to this group.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2024 · doi:10.1177/13623613231193529