Citation:
Abstract:
This white paper was commissioned by the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health with support from the DentaQuest Foundation, the REACH Healthcare Foundation, and the Washington Dental Service Foundation.
Forward
Strengthening the primary care delivery system, investing in prevention, and reducing unnecessary costs are national healthcare priorities. As the leaders of organizations committed to advancing oral health, we see a clear opportunity to improve health, reduce waste, and maximize the value of our limited healthcare workforce by incorporating oral health in routine medical care.
We commissioned an initiative to develop, test, and disseminate an actionable pathway for delivering preventive oral health care in the primary care setting, and improving the structure of referrals from primary care to dentistry. We assembled a Technical Expert Panel to guide this effort, which included primary care and dental care providers, medical and dental associations, payers and policymakers, a patient and family partnership expert, and oral health and public health educators and advocates.
Based on input from this panel, and a careful review of previous efforts to integrate once fragmented services into primary care, the authors developed an organizing framework, which we present in this white paper.
The Oral Health Delivery Framework has been endorsed by a broad array of organizations, and is consistent with how primary care teams manage preventive, acute, and chronic care needs for a wide range of clinical conditions across the lifespan. As such, we believe that implementation of the Framework is an achievable goal.
It has been 15 years since the U.S. Surgeon General identified oral disease as a priority health concern and documented pervasive and systemic barriers to dental care. Despite calls for all healthcare professionals to pay attention to oral disease, too little progress has been made in reconfiguring the healthcare delivery system to better meet our nation’s oral health needs. Only by partnering together can we reduce the burden of oral disease. We hope that the information presented in this white paper will inspire primary care teams and dental health professionals—and the stakeholders that support them—to end the artificial separation of oral and systemic health.