MyDentist: Making children with autism familiar with dental care

Abstract

Children with autism perceive sensory experiences differently and have problems accepting unknown social contexts. In a dental care setting, there are many strong sound-visual stimuli, which are usually not found in known environments such as home or school. This usually upsets a child with autism, often forcing dentists to administer an anesthetic even to perform normal dental hygiene. In recent years, technology-enhanced systems and apps have been developed to help people with autism adapt to new contexts and cope with distressing social situations. In this paper, we present a web application (MyDentist) which provides dentists, parents and children with a set of resources to teach children with autism the proper oral procedures at home and correct behavior during dental visits. MyDentist includes multimodal games and activities to lighten children’s tension and to make them familiar with dental procedures. Games and activities can be personalized according to child’s needs and preferences. Professionals may also take and collect photos and videos during dental visits, making them accessible to parents and caregivers in the private profile of each child.