Patients with Special Health Care Needs (SHCN) are those with physical, medical, developmental, or cognitive conditions that limit their ability to receive routine dental care.
The Pamela Kaminsky Clinic for Adolescents and Adults with Special Health Care Needs serves individuals with special needs throughout the state of South Carolina. The goals of the program are to:
- Provide care for adolescents and adult patients with special dental and health care needs.
- Provide patients with SHCN a dental home for continued dental care, either through continued treatment at our facility or through a concierge transition to a provider in the community.
- Train dental students and residents in the treatment of patients with SHCN.
Become a Patient
Our clinic serves adolescents and adults with Special Health Care Needs (SHCN). For treatment of children with SHCN, please contact our Department of Pediatric Dentistry.
We provide a full range of services, including cleanings, x-rays, restorative dentistry, endodontics (root canals), and oral surgery.
Care is delivered by dental students, residents of our Advanced Education in General Dentistry program and experienced College of Dental Medicine faculty members. Residents and faculty in specialty departments within the college provide specialty care.
Patient management techniques range from behavioral guidance, to pharmacological management such as premedication and nitrous oxide, up to services performed in the hospital operating room, if needed. We work closely with caregivers and work interprofessionally with physicians and members of the medical team to assure that the choice of management techniques are appropriate for each individual.
Patients who attend our clinic may have Special Health Care Needs ranging from intellectual disabilities, (such as Down syndrome, autistic spectrum disorder) physical disabilities (such as being unable to transfer to a regular dental chair), and medically complex needs, including patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
For further information and to inquire about becoming a patient in our clinic, please call 843-876-SMIL(E). Our clinic works with private dental insurance, and also accepts Medicaid. If you'd like to prepare the patient for a visit in the Special Care Clinic, this Social Story (PDF) may provide some assistance.
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