A Guide to ADHD and Dental Care (2023)

FAQs

How does ADHD affect dental treatment? ›

ADHD often makes it difficult for a child to pay attention and control impulsive behaviors. When it comes to going to the dentist, children with ADHD may tend to feel anxious or stressed, which can make it hard for them to focus and sit still during a dental appointment.

Oral Health in ADHD Patients

Children with ADHD have a poor overall oral health status than those without ADHD. Poor oral hygiene habits contribute to a higher prevalence of cavities and dental caries in children with ADHD.

Several ADHD traits can make it hard to maintain personal hygiene. Being easily distracted can make you forego things like taking a bath or brushing your teeth. Being sensitive to hygiene products can also pose a challenge. Of course, there are instances of being forgetful with activities that concern cleanliness.

For many individuals, ADHD impairments are made worse by their struggles with excessive anxiety, persistent depression, compulsive behaviors, difficulties with mood regulation, learning disorders, or other psychiatric disorders that may be transient, recurrent, or persistently disruptive of their ability to perform the ...

Students with ADHD tend to have higher rates of math learning disabilities as compared to the general student population. 1 Even those students with ADHD who do not qualify for a math disability may still have a terrible time with math.

Adults with ADHD often have problems dealing with day-to-day tasks. They tend to be forgetful, disorganized, and messy. This makes cleaning with ADHD nearly an insurmountable task, especially since cleaning seems like such a chore to neurotypicals themselves.

Students who are affected by ADHD often have a hard time with math because their memory is not very strong and blocking out external stimuli is a struggle. Memory, which is where information is stored for later use, is one of many executive functions.

Straighten Up in Spurts. If it's hard to concentrate on one task, such as folding laundry or washing dishes, all the way to completion, try doing it in increments. One of the easiest cleaning tips is to set a timer for 15 minutes, and stay on task until it goes off. If you think you can keep going, reset the timer.

ADHD can make cleaning and home organization challenging. The key to tackling your chores is to make each task clear, remove as many barriers as you can, create routines, and use lists, charts, calendar reminders, and other tools that help keep you on track.

Can people with ADHD tidy up? ›

People with ADHD who have a hard time keeping things tidy usually aren't being lazy or thoughtless. They have trouble with a group of skills needed to tackle cleanup tasks and stay organized. These skills are known as executive function.

People with ADHD have a difficult time with many of the executive functioning skills most of us unconsciously use every day. These invisible skills are what enable us to plan, prioritize, manage our time, and get things done. A person without ADHD might look at a messy room and think, “Okay.

ADHD can cause excessive nail-biting, hair-pulling, and skin-picking.

In 2009, the Baylor College of Medicine in England conducted a study that showed chewing gum actually reduces stress for kids with ADHD. They reported that chewing is soothing and helps calm nerves, thanks to its repetition. When kids with ADHD chew gum, they may have fewer behavioral problems or emotional outbursts.

The symptoms may peak in severity when the child is seven to eight years of age, after which they often begin to decline. By the adolescent years, the hyperactive symptoms may be less noticeable, although ADHD can continue to be present.

Some of the common foods that can cause ADHD reactions include milk, chocolate, soy, wheat, eggs, beans, corn, tomatoes, grapes, and oranges. If you suspect a food sensitivity may be contributing to your child's ADHD symptoms, talk to your ADHD dietitian or doctor about trying an elimination diet.

Differences in emotions in people with ADHD can lead to 'shutdowns', where someone is so overwhelmed with emotions that they space out, may find it hard to speak or move and may struggle to articulate what they are feeling until they can process their emotions.

ADHD meltdowns are sudden outbursts of frustration and anger that seem to come out of nowhere. If your child is struggling to control their emotions, there are ways to help them. For children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), impulsivity can present in many ways.

The cause(s) and risk factors for ADHD are unknown, but current research shows that genetics plays an important role. Recent studies link genetic factors with ADHD. In addition to genetics, scientists are studying other possible causes and risk factors including: Brain injury.

Inattentiveness and difficulty concentrating may cause fatigue, especially among students and full-time employees working long days. Distractibility and poor focus can cause people with ADHD to quickly lose interest in activities or objects that once gave them pleasure as well.

What are people with ADHD good at? ›

These may include hyperfocus, resilience, creativity, conversational skills, spontaneity, and abundant energy. Many people view these benefits as “superpowers” because those with ADHD can hone them to their advantage. People with ADHD have a unique perspective that others may find interesting and valuable.

Is ADHD considered a disability? Yes, ADHD is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). There are several types of disabilities, including but not limited to: learning disability.

ADHD symptoms can make math more difficult. But ADHD can also increase your chances of having a co-occurring math learning disorder called dyscalculia. Statistics from the early 2000s (the most recent available) suggest that 31 percent of students with ADHD also have a math disability.

There's a strong connection between disorganization and ADHD. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) lists “often loses things necessary for tasks or activities” as one of the possible symptoms that can add up to a diagnosis of ADHD.

Junebugging is cleaning by distraction, a process by which you put some of the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, only to get distracted by the pile of the laundry that needs to go in the washing machine, which reminds you that there are a million LEGO scattered across the living room floor, which then alerts your ...

Infusing energy and playfulness into your routine is a wonderful way to get your ADHD brain moving and motivated. Just remember that trying to organize everything all at once can leave you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. Try specific daily intentions instead.

The follow-up in the multisite Multimodal Treatment of ADHD study found that adolescents (14–18 years old) with childhood ADHD had an average GPA of 2.75, which was significantly lower than the 3.0 average GPA of adolescents without childhood ADHD (Molina et al., 2009).

Shankman: Simply put, ADHD is the brain's inability to produce as much dopamine, serotonin, and adrenaline as “regular” people's brains produce. Because of that, our brains have become “faster.” When managed right, that becomes a superpower. Have you found that you tend to think faster than most people? Yes.

ADHD can affect a student's ability to focus, pay attention, listen, or put effort into schoolwork. ADHD also can make a student fidgety, restless, talk too much, or disrupt the class. Kids with ADHD might also have learning disabilities that cause them to have problems in school.

Why do people with ADHD hoard? ›

Both ADHD and hoarding disorder are marked by executive function deficits that contribute to excessive clutter. These include difficulty with categorizing and decision-making, and distractibility.

This cleaning technique works the same way. When you clean by junebugging, you pick a spot you want to clean and keep bringing yourself back to that spot, no matter where you wander through the cleaning process. The key is allowing yourself to wander but always coming back to your main spot.

It's human to forget things occasionally, but for someone with ADHD, forgetfulness tends to occur more often. This can include routinely forgetting where you've put something or what important dates you need to keep. Sometimes forgetfulness can be bothersome but not to the point of causing serious disruptions.

A key difference between ADHD and hoarding disorder is the reason why people have so many possessions. A person with symptoms of ADHD may be untidy or live in a cluttered home because they are unable to organise their things whereas a hoarder will have a specific reason why they can't let go of something they own.

A Doom Box is a special container that helps people keep track of their things. It's beneficial for people with ADHD who have trouble staying organized. You put things you don't want to lose or forget about, like your keys or school supplies, in the Doom Box, so you know where they are when you need them.

In general, ADHD doesn't get worse with age. Some adults may also outgrow their symptoms.

Spontaneous spending — and financial headaches — are common among people with ADHD, who struggle with impulsive behaviors, poor planning skills, and other executive dysfunctions inherent to the condition. Impulse buying also produces that quick rush of dopamine, which ADHD brains constantly crave.

Dermatophagia or “wolf-biting”⁵ is another obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)-related disorder and is defined as the compulsion to bite one's own skin. Since many patients do not eat/ingest their skin but simply bite or gnaw on it, researchers have recommended using the term dermatodaxia instead of dermatophagia.

Many people with ADHD experience a physical hypersensitivity to a variety of things, including touch. Being hypersensitive may mean that stimulation of their genitals might be uncomfortable or even painful in someone with ADHD. This sensitivity may also extend to other senses as well.

What is an example of stimming with ADHD? ›

Stimming can take many different forms: visual: staring off into space, drawing, spinning things like pens or coins. verbal/auditory: repeating sounds, excessive giggling, constantly clearing throat. tactile: rubbing fingers, chewing/biting nails, chewing the inside of cheeks.

Experts believe that people with ADHD may overeat to satisfy their brain's need for stimulation. Also, problems with executive function can make self-control and self-regulation difficult. Inattention can also be a factor. People with ADHD may not be as aware of or focused on their eating habits.

Experts believe people with ADHD may tend to overeat in an attempt to satisfy their brain's higher need for stimulation.

Exposure of the developing brain to anaesthetics may disrupt the structure and function of neural circuits downstream from the prefrontal cortex, resulting in ADHD (Table 1).

A study in 2015 looked at data from two states that put fluoride in its drinking water. Researchers found that the areas with the most fluoride also had the highest number of kids with ADHD. But that doesn't mean the fluoride necessarily caused ADHD. There may be other factors that weren't studied.

Schedule appointments in the morning or at a time of day when child is least fatigued, most attentive, and best able to remain seated in dental chair. Give short, clear instructions directly to child. Give only one instruction at a time. Use Tell-Show-Do approach when introducing new procedures.

“If a person has ADHD but it doesn't substantially limit any major life activity, then they're not going to be qualified under the ADA for any help,” she says. If you do qualify, it could mean that if you can't get work done because of noise, you might be able to ask for a private office with a door.