Leda Mugayar MS, DDS, Head of Special Care Unit, Staff Specialist.
Dr Leda Mugayar graduated in Dentistry in Brazil in 1980 at University of Campinas and after that had done three different specialisation courses - Paediatric Dentistry, Radiology and Oral Diagnosis and Special Care in Dentistry - this last one a recognised specialty in Brazil.
Since her graduation at the university she has been working with Special Care patients and had Special Care in Dentistry as her main area of expertise together with Paediatric Dentistry.
In 2000 she published a book - "Special Care Patients - Manual of Oral Health " a multidisciplinary approach for the practice of Special Care in Dentistry. It was the first book published in Latin America in the area of Special Needs Dentistry and has been largely referred amongst many Latin American countries.
Dr Mugayar has been active in national and international Associations in Special Care in Dentistry and has been appointed as the President-Elected for the IADH - International Association of Dentistry for Disability and Oral Health and is the current President of the Australian Society for Special Care Dentistry.
She has been also involved for the last 10 years with the Special Olympics Program and is the National co-ordinator of the Special Smiles - the Oral Health Program - and as such has been implementing the program in Australia.
Finally, Autism Spectrum Disorders is one of her areas of main interest and there will be an opportunity to discuss some of the important points related to that such as Aetiology, general clinical aspects, behavioural and clinical management providing a general understanding of the ASD reinforcing the concept that by knowing it better we can treat it better.