Oral health and long-term health conditions: exploring experiences of young people and their families

Whilst we know a lot about how dental problems can have a negative impact on children and their families, we know little about how they affect children with long-term health conditions.

Emma Morgan, School of Dentistry

This public involvement aimed to find out more about the oral health experiences of children with long-term health conditions. Several events were held with both children and parents to discover more about their experiences and desires for the future.

Children and parents collectively identified negative experiences in areas such as accessing dental care and accessing oral health information. This work has been influential in developing a PhD project to explore dental care access for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The input from all children and families involved has been invaluable and I plan to continue working with them going forwards.