Virtual Training of Dental Students in Zambia To Improve the Care of Patients with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

Abstract Many individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) lack sufficient dental care. The global scarcity of dental providers with specialized training to care for this population is a key barrier to appropriate and timely treatment. Research suggests that training dental professionals to use behavioral interventions to increase the comfort of individuals with NDD during dental exams would help address oral health disparities. The purpose of the study was to examine the outcomes of an approach to effectively disseminate and sustain this training to professionals residing in Zambia. Fifteen dental students participated in a group virtual training to learn how to implement a package of behavioral interventions, including noncontingent breaks, reinforcement for cooperation, and patient access to preferred stimuli. Effects of the training on performance were evaluated via a concurrent multiple-baseline across participants design with four participants and a pre- and post-training design with the remaining participants. Results replicated and extended prior research (Matteucci et al., 2023) by including a larger number of participants, evaluating participants’ performance with actual patients, assessing maintenance, and preparing an on-site dental professional to continue the training with future students. Nearly all participants improved their performance following the training. These findings have implications for utilizing cross-disciplinary collaborations to scale up the dissemination of behavior-analytic technologies to professionals across the globe.