• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10

Having a disability impacts every aspect of your life, and even finding a dentist to work with can be difficult. Fortunately there are steps that you can take to help you find a dentist's office that is accessible or that will be able to accommodate the special needs of your disability. The following tips will show you what to look for, what questions to ask and where to find the best accessible dentist offices.

What to Look For
Finding dentist offices that are accessible is not as difficult as it first seems. Most dentist offices today follow the ADA guidelines for accessibility of public buildings. This means that they are equipped with ramps to help make getting into the office easier and bathrooms have rails to make transferring from a wheelchair to the toilet easier. However, these basic accommodations may not be enough to make a dental visit truly accessible. After all, you still need to get back to the exam room, you need to get into the exam chair and you need to get out of the exam chair.

When you explore potential dental offices you will want to look at the general accommodations for accessibility, as well as extra accommodations that will ensure you are able to receive proper dental care. For example, you will want to look for a trained staff that can handle transfer assists, you will want to look for Hoyer lifts if you need one, and you will want to look for rails on the walls as well as in the bathroom. Finally, you will want to look at the width of the hallways to make sure that your wheelchair, scooter or other mobility assistive technologies will be able to make it down the hall to the exam room.

What Questions to Ask
In addition to looking for accessibility features at the dentist offices that you are interested in, you will also want to talk to the dentist and their front office staff about other adaptive technology that they have available. If you have a complex disability then you will also want to discuss the special training the dentist has for working with such cases. For example, if you need to be sedated for your dental treatment and you are concerned because you have a problem with sleep apnea, then you will need to discuss what precautions the dentist will take during the procedure. If you are searching for a dentist for your child who has a disability then you will want to ask your dentist candidates what experience they have with children who have emotional, physical and psychological disabilities to make sure that they have the skills and training required to handle the challenges of treating kids with disabilities.

Where to Find Accessible Dentist Offices
There are several ways that you can find accessible dentist offices. Your first option is to simply check out the yellow pages and look for an ad that includes an ADA sign. Your second option is to ask for a referral from friends and family members that also have a disability. Your final option is to talk to a disability advocacy organizations or your case worker, if you have one, and ask for a referral.

See Eisla Sebastian’s Profile on Disaboom 

See Eisla Sebastian’s Profile on Associated Content