A dentist in Dartmouth has opened what advocates are calling the first wheelchair-accessible dental clinic in Nova Scotia.
A new dental clinic opened in the Halifax area on Sunday with the objective of making dental care more accessible to Nova Scotians living with disabilities. As Zack Power explains, advocates are calling it a step towards a fully accessible healthcare system.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.
“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.
“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.”“I have always seen people with disabilities struggle to sit in the chair, and we as dental staff, always struggled to see them,” dentist Simardeep Hundal said.
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