Attitudes of dental students and teachers towards treating people with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This study aims to identify the attitudes of students and teachers of a private university, regarding the idea of incorporating dental attention of people with intellectual disabilities into the undergraduate curriculum. A mixed study was designed. A questionnaire previously validated by experts was applied, based on a Likert-type scale with 20 items and free space for additional comments, to a community of students of the clinical and preclinical cycle of dentistry and their teachers. Quantitative analysis of frequencies according to items and dimensions and qualitative content analysis was carried out, triangulating the results with the literature in the discussion. The questionnaire was answered by 176 people (71% of the population), obtaining the dimensions of the questionnaire positive perceptions of 70.00%, 88.30%, 81.82%, and 72.27%. In the qualitative part, four categories were built: Inclusion as a relevant topic in training, Necessary Theoretical Training, Clinical Care by specialists or higher courses, Academic consequences of the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the curriculum. There is a favorable perception of the idea of incorporating theoretical contents and attention to people with intellectual disabilities, however, there is reluctance regarding the evaluation and the difficulties associated with the proper attention of these people.