The dental treatment of people with a mental and/or physical disability often entails a variety of related problems and requires extra expertise and competencies on the part of the dentist. If treatment in an ordinary practice is not (or is no longer) possible, the patient can be referred to a centre for special care dentistry or to dental practices in institutions for the mentally disabled. In the Netherlands, a three year postgraduate programme in dentistry for the disabled was established in 2004, the purpose of which is to improve the availability and quality of dental care for the disabled.