Dental storybooks ‘can help children with autism prepare for visiting dentists’

A new study has highlighted the positive oral health benefits of children's storybooks with dental narratives for young people with autism.

Published in the journal Special Care in Dentistry, the research found that 64 percent of caregivers felt that dental-oriented stories were a useful tool for both themselves and their child in preparing them for a visit to the dentist.

These stories were delivered via a range of different media, including picture-based storybooks, as well as photographs and video-based content.

Charity group the Oral Health Foundation has welcomed this research, which it believes could lead to significant improvements in the long-term oral health of children with autism by helping them develop behavioural routines based on good habits such as tooth brushing.

This is important as children with autism are generally at a higher risk of many oral health problems, including bruxism, ulceration, erosion due to regurgitation and tooth decay as a result of limited dietary preferences, as well as sweets being given as behavioural rewards.

Dr Nigel Carter, chief executive officer of the Oral Health Foundation, said: "This is very promising research and we would welcome further studies which look at how it is possible to provide the most effective care to many other children with different needs."

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