A Report on the Actual State of Home-visit Dental Care Provided to a Child Who Has Needed Constant Medical Care by a Private Dental Clinic for 35 Years

<p>This paper summarizes and considers the home-visit dental care for a child who has needed constant medical care provided by a local private dental clinic for the past 35 years. The clinic has provided home-visit dental care to a total of 48 children living in Amagasaki City and nearby cities in Hyogo Prefecture. More than half of them lived within a 4 km radius, and even the furthest one was less than 12 km from the clinic. Since 2011, the number of home-visit dental care trips has increased until the end of March 2022. Regarding the patients’ age at the first visit, the majority were 1 year old, followed by 2 and 4 years old in order. The patients suffered from a wide variety of diseases and disorders; of the 27 kinds of diagnoses, the most common was cerebral palsy or hypoxic encephalopathy. Many patients had respiratory and/or nutritional problems and were controlled by, for example, using a ventilator and/or parenteral nutrition, mostly a gastrostoma (PEG). The most common reason for requesting home-visit dental care from their caregiver was for an examination or consultation on the patient’s oral condition, followed by dental calculus removal and swallowing dysfunction in order.</p><p>Although many dental clinics provide home-visit dental care for older adults at home, few do so for children who need constant medical care. Amid the declining birthrate in society, the relative number of children requiring intensive and continuous medical care is increasing, so it is necessary to increase the number of dental clinics providing home-visit dental care for such children.</p>