Dental Care and Profound Autism: Inchstones with Dr. Sydnee Chavis

What if your child’s first dental visit was about more than teeth?

In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with Special Needs Dentist, Dr. Sydnee Chavis, for a raw and real conversation about raising children with profound autism and apraxia. Together, they explore how personal experience with neurodiversity has shaped their work—one through dentistry, the other through financial strategy—and how every inchstone, from brushing teeth to building a care team, is a major milestone.

They unpack what it means to advocate for children who are non-speaking, the emotional labor of showing up daily for kids with complex needs, and why accessible care—especially dental care—is often out of reach for families like ours. This episode also dives into the power of choice for disabled patients, the overlooked value of trauma-informed dentistry, and how to approach long-term financial planning without getting overwhelmed.

Whether you're deep in the world of profound autism or just beginning to understand what apraxia looks like day-to-day, this conversation holds space for the mess, the magic, and the meaning behind the inchstones that define our families.

Chapters

• (00:00:00) - Dental Care for Special Needs People
• (00:07:19) - How to keep a healthy mouth after a dental surgery?
• (00:10:35) - What would be the best directive as a parent to share with an
• (00:17:47) - Autistic Dentist: Counting in the Mouth
• (00:22:32) - Dental Care for Special Needs Families