Special Needs Dental Associates was established in 2007 when Dr. Timothy Lekavich and Wendy Surfas-Lekavich, MPA recognized the access challenges for dental treatment that individuals with various medical and dental disabilities encounter. When evaluating these obstacles, they determined that not only were there limits on the specialty care and appropriate treatment venues available, but also evaluated what other holistic challenges existed in limiting patients to obtain care. It is those barriers to care on which our team focuses to ensure our patients can be treated in a timely manner.
When recognizing the access to care issues for our patients, we determined that our practice would focus specifically on patients with medical and behavioral challenges to ensure that each patient was afforded the availability required for ongoing oral health management. We understand that some patients have not had access to dentistry and may not have seen a dentist for several years or even decades. We wanted to create an environment where patients and their caregivers feel unrushed, calm, and understood. We determined the best way to do that was by specializing only with adult individuals with disabilities.
Our Santa Monica dental office provides best of practice treatment plans that address our patient's oral health needs holistically, taking into account outside barriers to treatment, such as limited specialty care providers, access to transportation, housing, nutrition, and other issues that can cause challenges in managing oral health.