Perspectiva del Odontólogo sobre la necesidad de unir la Logopedia a la Práctica Clínica

objective: to determine the opinion of dentists and dental specialists on the need to link speech therapy with the practice of dentistry. design: observational, descriptive and cross-sectional. setting: funorte school of dentistry, montes claros, brazil. participants: general dentists, orthodontists, paediatric dentists and facial orthopaedics specialists. mean measurements: age, gender, educational level, work experience, referral experience of participants, reasons for referral, the position taken by patients being referred. results: n=73 (response rate 100%), 100% of respondents considered it important to link speech therapy with dental practice. seventy four percent of participants had experience with referrals and 51.9% of these reported that their patients sometimes needed assistance from speech therapists. in 31.5% of cases this was due to oral or oronasal breathing. 55.6% of the participants reported that patients are referred to a speech therapist at the end of their treatment. however, 53.7% reported that patients rarely attend the specialist visit and according to 72.2% of participants this is probably because of the patient's financial situation. only 11% of the participants had worked in an inter-disciplinary setting with a speech therapist. similarly they considered that patient acceptance of treatment is increased when working with a speech therapist. conclusion: it was concluded that the respondents considered that linking speech therapy with their profession was important.