**Abstract**

Individuals with special needs are the most underserved regarding healthcare needs in almost all populations. Special needs patients with intellectual disability have muscle coordination disorder, impaired oral motor function, drooling, weak muscles that cause chewing and swallowing problems. Also, soft diet consumption makes this population more prone to dental disease. They have more caries, missing teeth, orthodontic and periodontal problems. Besides more difficulties obtaining professional dental care than other segments of the population. Though many countries developed community-based systems to improve oral health for people with special needs, providing good oral health mainly depends on the effort of the families. Therefore the education of the caregiver about oral hygiene provision is also critical for the special needs patient to enjoy a lifetime of oral health the same as other members of the society.

**Keywords:** disability, dentistry for special needs patient, cerebral palsy, autism, down syndrome, intellectual disability

### **1. Introduction**

According to the WHO World report on disability 2011, About 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability, of whom 2–4% experience significant difficulties in functioning. The global disability prevalence is higher than previous WHO estimates, which date from the 1970s and suggested a figure of around 10%. This global estimate for disability is on the rise due to population aging and the rapid spread of chronic diseases, as well as improvements in the methodologies used to measure disability.

Individuals with disabilities have generally poorer health, lower education, fewer economic opportunities, and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. This is mainly due to the obstacles they face in their daily lives and the lack of services available to them. Regarding oral health and access to dental care, the same obstacles are of concern. Oral health is mostly ignored, oral hygiene is neglected, and dental treatments are postponed after other health issues. As a result, individuals with special needs present more dental caries, periodontal problems, orthodontic anomalies, and are more prone to dental diseases compared with the healthy population.
