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Patients with intellectual disabilities often fail to follow traditional tongue position instructions for panoramic radiographs resulting in missed pathology or unnecessary further radiation. This simple breathing technique is a new clinical instruction method for panoramic radiography developed to reduce the most common patient position error: patient failure to hold the tongue to the roof of the mouth. The technique is suitable for all patients including young patients and those with intellectual disabilities. The simple breathing technique uses ‘tell‐show‐do’ communication methods and does not mention the tongue but utilises the known tongue positions that occur during breathing and swallowing. This simple breathing technique instruction for panoramic radiography uses a demonstration of ‘breathe‐in, breathe‐out, swallow, lips closed and hold still’ to reduce the intensity of both the palatoglossal and pharyngeal airspaces on panoramic radiographs. This method, referred in this article as the simple breathing technique, can improve the diagnostic potential of panoramic radiographs and can be used with young children and patients with intellectual disabilities, and this slow breathing technique can help them further relax. A new clinical instruction method for panoramic radiographs is described. This simple breathing technique has been developed to reduce the common patient positioning error of patient failure to hold the tongue to roof of their mouth. This technique is suitable especially for young patients and those with intellectual disability.

Abstract: In 2001 The Faculty of Dentistry, Sydney University, Australia embarked upon a New Dental Curriculum. This curriculum is a four year program which is integrated with the Faculty of Medicine four year Graduate Medical Program. The dental program aims to produce dentists capable of meeting the changing aspects of dentistry and to be committed to maintaining the highest professional standards. The program has few lectures, is web based, integrates the different disciplines traditionally found in dentistry and aims to produce a General Dental Practitioner whose aim is self-directed life-long learning. The challenge faced was to change the teaching and assessment to accommodate the new curriculum and to develop the necessary clinical radiological skill within each student using problem based learning (PBL) and web based technology. Structured, Clinical, Objective, Referenced, Problem orientated, Integrated, Organized (SCORPIO) was the method of choice and proved in the case of radiology to be a very effective way of presenting a large amount of information in a short time frame and was, based on evaluation findings, well accepted by the students.

During 1991, an oral health assessment of 101 adults with developmental disabilities aged from 21 to 53 years undertaken as part of a broader health survey which also included medical, psychological and nutritional assessments. The study group consisted of a random sample of adults chosen form the developmentally disabled population known to be living in the lower North Shore area of Sydney. This paper describes the results of the oral health assessment and compress them with an oral health survey of the Australian population done in 1987/88. Forty‐six per cent of the study group were males (mean age 33.5 years) and 54 per cent were females (mean age 33.0 years). Compared with similar age subgroups in the Australian population, the following factors were more frequently reported in the developmentally disabled group: a dental visit in the last 12 months (65 per cent vs 50) per cent; Odds Ratio (OR) 1.9:95) per cent; Confidence Internal (CI); 1.3‐2.8); use of public rather than private dental services (42 per cent vs 6 per cent; OR 11.3:95% CI7.5–16.9); oral mucosal pathology requiring treatment (15 percent vs 2 per cent; OR 8.5:95% CI 5.2–13.8); Severe periodontal disease (16 per cent vs 3 per cent; OR 6.9:95% CI 4.2–11.4); and moderate to severe malocclusion (26 percent vs 11 per cent; OR 2.1:95% CI 1.3‐3.5). Fifty‐eight per cent of subjects felt they needed no dental treatment but on examination of the oral mucosa, periodontal tissues and teeth, over 90 per cent were found to require some sort of dental treatment.