Wheelchair-accessible dental clinic opens in Nova Scotia
Global News
A dentist in Dartmouth has opened what advocates are calling the first wheelchair-accessible dental clinic in Nova Scotia.
Getting dental work with a disability became easier on Sunday with the opening of what’s believed to be the first wheelchair accessible clinic in Nova Scotia.
The new clinic is fully wheelchair accessible, with a lift to transfer to the dental chair.
Previously those in a wheelchair would have to manually slide from their wheelchair to the dental chair. The process isn’t for everyone, forcing some, if able, to get their dental work done from their wheelchair.
“There are people with significant mobility challenges that have not been to the dentist in many years,” said Kevin Murphy, a wheelchair user. “Perhaps in some cases in their lifetime.”
Patients use a sling, which attaches to a lift connected to the ceiling to hoist themselves onto the dentist’s chair. The process takes less than a minute and creates an easier way to access care.
For Murphy, who’s been in a wheelchair since he was 14 years old, the clinic is a “gamechanger.” The former politician recently had a turn in his health, which created a decrease in his mobility. Since then, the disability advocate searched for a more accessible way to get dental care.
He didn’t find a wheelchair-accessible clinic in the province.
“The reality of accessing a clinic from a wheelchair — you have to find a practitioner that’s willing to recognize that there’s things that need to be done differently,” he said in an interview with Global News on Sunday. “For me that’s finding a ceiling lift.”