The mentally handicapped exhibit a 3 times higher incidence of malocclusions and related functional problems than the general population. In contrast there is little available literature relating to the orthodontic treatment of handicapped patients. Based on published articles on orthodontic treatment of disabled patients the following recommendations can be given. First of all for each patient a ‘problem list’ should be drawn up, based on the diagnosis. In this list the orthodontic problems are formulated. Additionally, the list makes clear who is responsible for providing services related to orthodontic care, such as oral hygiene and transportation of the patient to the orthodontist. When deciding whether or not orthodontic treatment should be administered to a patient with a mental handicap the same functional and aesthetic considerations as with any other orthodontic case must be taken into account. Furthermore, the severity of the handicap and possible associated psychosocial and medical limitations as well as the extent to which it will be possible to treat the patient have to be considered. Contraindications are a severe mental handicap, inability to remain still in the dental chair, insufficient co-operation of parents/carers, open bite resulting from abnormal oral function, and a mild malocclusion. The orthodontic treatment should aim for an acceptable result, and not for orthodontic perfection.

In recent years, a specialization in geriatric dentistry has been established and along with it an educational programme. A specialist in geriatric dentistry is a dentist general practitioner with special knowledge and skills for delivering oral care to frail elderly people. The educational programme aims at an increase in dentists serving in geriatric care who are well prepared for delivering care. In the programme attention is paid to the special aspects of care delivery and the special somatic, mental, and social characteristics of frail elderly people. The goal is to formulate an individual oral care programme for every frail elderly person. An individual oral care programme may contain 5 different oral care activities: continuing care, prevention, support, treatments, and evaluation. These activities define the scope of specialists in geriatric dentistry. This scope in turn defines the profile of required knowledge and skills, and the profile is the foundation of the educational objectives of the educational programme. The educational programme contains 7 modules: affinity; somatic and mental disabilities; communicative skills and coping with behavioural disturbances; emergency medical care; history taking, assessment, prevention, treatments and evaluation; organization and legislation; scientific training.

Parkinson’s disease is a slowly progressive and irreversible disorder of the nervous system. Drooling is listed as a secondary symptom of Parkinson’s disease. Its cause is insufficiently clear. In the literature 2 possible causes are described: hypersalivation and swallowing abnormalities. These parameters have not been measured in a single study before. This article presents a review of the literature on the subject and describes the design for a future clinical study. The aim of this clinical study is to gain an insight into the cause and the prevalence of drooling in Parkinson’s patients. A group of 50 Parkinson’s patients will be compared to a group of 50 controls. The objectives of this comparative study comprise the assessment of salivary flow volumes, swallowing capacity, subjective experiences with drooling and an objective observation of drooling, the drooling quotient. Finally, the possibilities for treatment will be described.

In view of the severe adverse effects that smoking has on health, much energy is being invested especially to prevent adolescents from starting to smoke or to get them to stop. Since orthodontists have regular contact with a rather large group of young people during the period when they begin to smoke, a study was conducted to determine whether these specialists could be engaged in an organized anti-smoking programme. One of the relevant considerations was that orthodontists are succesful in motivating adolescents to wear braces. Research has shown that dentists in an organized programme in the United States were able to achieve a significant reduction in the percentage of adult smokers. The research findings revealed, however, that the orthodontists nevertheless lacked sufficient training and motivation to be effectively employed in an anti-smoking programme. The results of some clinical trials with adolescent patients were disappointing, but they did make clear what needs to be done to achieve improvements.Well organized involvement in a sound anti- smoking programme in The Netherlands will require very careful preparation and will only be able to start after well designed and successful clinical trials.

The characteristics of a 5-years old girl, referred to a multidisciplinary team for cleft lip and palate because of speaking problems, were diagnosed as Kabuki syndrome. The Kabuki syndrome is a congenital syndrome of unknown aetiology, diagnosed based on a combination of clinical findings. It is characterised by distinctive facial features, skeletal anomalies, dermatoglyphic abnormalities, developmental delay and mild to moderate mental retardation. Children with the syndrome often have oral manifestations such as cleft palate, missing permanent teeth and conic crowns of upper incisors. The Kabuki syndrome was first described regarding the Japanese population but it is now known to occur in many other races as well. In a recent publication, 20 Dutch patients with Kabuki syndrome were described.

Disposable needles for dental local anaesthesia do not break easily. Still, needle breakage does occur, and is mainly caused by unexpected movements of the patient or pre-use bending of the needle by the dentist. If a dental needle breaks while administering local anaesthesia, the dentist should prevent panic. If the patient opens his mouth wide the needle might still be visible. If so, the needle is removed. If the needle is no longer visible, the site where the needle has penetrated the mucosa should be marked with a permanent marker. The dentist will contact a maxillofacial surgeon for immediate consultation. The maxillofacial surgeon will try to retrieve the broken dental needle under general anaesthesia.