Dental management of child and adolescent patients with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder in which thought disturbances and aberrant behavior lessen an individual's ability to care for him or herself and to effectively work and communicate with others. The disorder affects 1 percent of the United States population. Onset of the florid psychotic symptoms most commonly occurs during adolescence or young adulthood, but most of these youngsters exhibit unusual behavior and peculiar thinking during childhood. Medications used in managing the disorder have numerous systemic and orofacial adverse side effects that must be recognized by dentists. Dental treatment strategies for the identification and management of these side effects are described as is a method to improve compliance with oral hygiene techniques.