Wei Wang

Research Fellow

“We feel and know that we are eternal”

Baruch Spinoza

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Value-Based Dental Care for Adults with Cognitive Disability

1

Grant recipients

  • Charmine E. J. Härtel
  • Kristian Rotaru
  • Trung Dung Bui
  • Libby Callaway
  • Wei Wang
  • Kadek Satriadi
2

Funding details

Monash Business School awarded this funding through the Industry Research Incentive Scheme (IRIS).

Funding awarded AU$40,000
3

What the grant supports

This project aims to make dental care easier to use for adults with cognitive disability.

The team plans to test different kinds of support at community dental clinics in Seaford and Hastings.

4

Support during dental visits

People can choose support that suits their needs. They must still be able to communicate with the dental team.

  • Calming sounds through headphones.
  • Gentle videos on a tablet.
  • Virtual reality when it suits the person and is appropriate for their care.
5

Working together

People with lived experience and dental staff will help shape the resources and how support is used.

The project partners are Bayside Health Peninsula Care Group Community Dental and Wallara.

6

What we want to learn

  • Whether people find the support comfortable and useful.
  • Whether it helps people complete their dental treatment.
  • How it fits into the work of a dental clinic.
  • What it costs to provide the support.
7

Planned resources

The team plans to develop a practical guide for dental clinics, with communication tools and advice for staff.

The findings will help services decide how to offer more inclusive dental care.

👤 Grant recipients

  • Professor Charmine E. J. Härtel
  • Professor Kristian Rotaru
  • Dr Trung Dung Bui
  • Professor Libby Callaway
  • Dr Wei Wang
  • Dr Kadek Satriadi

💲 Funding details

  • Industry Research Incentive Scheme (IRIS), Monash Business School
  • AU$40,000 awarded

🎓 Project overview

This project will co-design and pilot a disability-inclusive model of dental care at the Seaford and Hastings community dental clinics. It focuses on practical support for adults with cognitive disability who experience anxiety, sensory overload or communication barriers during dental visits. The study will examine both patient experience and the resources needed to deliver support within routine public dental services.

🎧 Support matched to the person

The pilot will use a stepped approach, beginning with the least burdensome option: calming audio through headphones, followed by tablet-based, low-motion visual distraction, and virtual reality relaxation content where clinically appropriate and preferred by the patient. Patient choice and communication with the dental team are central to the model.

People with lived experience, researchers and clinic staff will help refine supported decision-making resources, safety screening, infection-control procedures, staff guidance and workflow prompts before the package is tested in routine clinic sessions.

🔎 What the study will evaluate

  • Patient and carer experience: acceptability of the support and experiences of dental care.
  • Access and treatment: treatment completion, rebooking, non-attendance and indicators of escalation to more intensive care.
  • Implementation: uptake, consistency of delivery, staff experience and compatibility with clinic workflows.
  • Service value: appointment duration, resource use and the costs and consequences of delivering the support.

🤝 Project partners

Bayside Health Peninsula Care Group Community Dental is the clinical implementation partner, bringing the two clinic settings and expertise in service delivery. Wallara contributes disability inclusion and community engagement expertise to help make project resources and evaluation accessible.

📖 Planned outputs

The project aims to produce a two-site pilot dataset, a practical clinic toolkit and a cost-consequence business case that sets out the resources required alongside patient and service outcomes. The toolkit will include communication supports, staff guidance, safety procedures and implementation monitoring tools. These outputs are intended to inform service adoption and the design of a future larger study; benefits will be evaluated through the pilot.