The shift in the philosophy of care for people with learning disabilities from institutional care to living in the community has placed greater demands on generic health services. Alack of training and appropriate skills have been identified as problem areas for health care providers who may be required to care for this group of people. The dental health of people with learning disabilities has shown no improvement over the last fifty years despite advances in dental treatment. Requests for dental care present practitioners with ethical and legal problems due to a reduced capacity to give informed consent. The provision of dental care for patients with learning disabilities in the day surgery unit of a local hospital is critically evaluated and recommendations are then made as to how current practice may be improved with reference to the findings of current literature.