March 6, 2000

Study Finds Severely Sub-Standard Dental Care for Residents of MR Facilities

A study, conducted by the Hazlewood Center, a Louisville, Kentucky-based intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded (ICF/MR), has found that in several crucial areas, 75% of the 16,678 institutionalized individuals with profound mental retardation studied were receiving sub-standard dental care. The study also documented that 75% of institutional dentists in the southern United States were not taking baseline x-rays of their patients with severe mental retardation as part as their diagnostic check-up. Furthermore, 81% of . . .