Dental treatment for the handicapped patient.

A film which outlines the best course of dental treatment for handicapped (disabled) people (mostly children). The film uses the language of the time and the children are described as 'monogloid' or 'spastic'. Visiting two institutions, The Spastic Centre and Lorna Hodgkinson Sunshine Clinic in Sydney, Australia, the narrator seeks to illustrate the unique difficulties in providing good quality dental care for these individuals. He takes pains to describe the differences in intelligence and physical abilities. In the first institution, a young man, Robert Murphy, despite having unco-ordinated body movements, drives a small adapted car and is working in the workshop there. Dental examinations are difficult; it is recommended that initial exmainations take place in a familiar setting such as at home or the classroom. A dentist, minus his gown, goes to the classroom and gives a boy's teeth a brief examination. This is to establish whether treatment, if needed, can be given later in the dentist's chair or under a general anaesthetic. It is stated that it is important that the patient is relaxed. A number of other scenarios are provided and a variety of either muscle relaxants or deeper anaesthesia suggested. Finally, Watson states 'Let's see all the handicapped happy and dentally healthy'.