Toothbrushes made and adapted for patients with special needs

Introduction: People with special needs often have a high number of caries and periodontal diseases, related to difficulties in ensuring oral health care, access to dental treatment, and sometimes to the socioeconomic context. Objective: to argue the importance of making adapted toothbrushes for patients with special needs. Methods: a narrative bibliographic review was carried out through Google Scholar, of scientific articles published in the last ten years, in different digital databases such as: SciELO, Medline, Pubmed, digital libraries, in English and Spanish, using the following descriptors: "disability", "special needs", "oral hygiene", "mechanical and electric toothbrush", "bamboo toothbrush" "partial and/or total assistance". Development: the effectiveness of tooth brushing depends on the type of toothbrush, its use, the method and time of brushing, the use of mouthwash and/or dental floss. Although there are different methods for preventing plaque formation, the use of toothbrushes has proven to be the most effective way. This group includes patients with moderate or severe physical or mental disabilities and with significant motor limitations in the upper limbs. Many of them remain in wheelchairs or are bedridden for a large part of the time, need help to carry out any oral hygiene procedure and in this sense, with rare exceptions, cannot assume any type of responsibility in the process. Conclusions: the dentist must perceive the problem of the particular individual and formulate an individual plan, as well as inform the parents and the patient how to carry out such a program. Most patients with disabilities will require the supervision of parents or substitutes to carry it out