Oral health services: a Delphi technique estimation of their role in adult inpatient rehabilitation programs.

This report presents the results of an investigation into one possible administrative route that would increase the accessibility and availability of dental services for the handicapped. Specifically, this paper assesses the desirability of, perceived level of need for, and feasibility of incorporating a dental service into the total hospital rehabilitation program for adults. The Delphi technique, a method of gathering the opinions of experts through a sequentially designed set of questionnaires, was used to ascertain the views of ten chairpersons of physical medicine and rehabilitation units. The results of this discussion indicate that the perceived need is great, that access to care is difficult, and that a feasible solution would be to establish a hospital-based dental service, preferably convenient to the rehabilitation dormitory, which would provide a full range of dental services.