Dentistry Commons^™

Oral Health Care Services Available To Mentally Retarded Individuals In Public Residential Facilities, Marilynn Mattox

Dental Hygiene Theses & Dissertations

A growing awareness of the rights of institutionalized persons to receive comprehensive health care, including dentistry, has led to increased legislation in favor of handicapped individuals including the mentally retarded. Mentally retarded persons have a right to adequate health care, education, training rehabilitiation, and guidance that will enable them to develop their ability and maximum potential.

Mental retardation has in the past been defined as a condition that exists solely within an individual; more recent definitions have shifted to include "a condition that is an interaction between an individual and a particular environment. The environment in which a mentally retarded …