Working Together to Advance Health Equity: Integrating Oral Health Across Interprofessional Education and Practice

Life has often been described as a series of defining moments. Moments that have been used to illustrate how certain events in our lives shape who we have become and the future trajectory of our lives.

For the third of our population who systematically had limited access to oral care and continue to suffer from social and economic barriers leading to persistent inequality, for these and countless others, their defining moments are different. They consist of many barriers that prevent underserved and disadvantaged populations from accessing quality health care services. Barriers that include the endemic challenges created and perpetuated by a siloed health care system with too few oral health providers. A system that incentivizes treatment of disease while undervaluing preventive care and population health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control nearly half of all adults over age 30 in the United States have some form of gum disease. One in 4 adults have untreated tooth decay while the same number have lost all their teeth. Although the nation’s oral health has improved since the1960’s, not all people can reach these improvements particularly those in rural communities and members of minority and other disadvantaged populations. They lack ready access to care, fluoridated water, healthy foods, and other social determinants of health, improvements that help them maintain their oral health and keep their teeth throughout their lifetime.

In the US, many patients see a physician regularly, who may not visit a dentist. One hundred twelve million individuals annually visit a physician each year who do not see a dentist. And this number does not include PAs, nurses, social workers and others who provide primary care. This represents 112 million missed opportunities for primary care providers to engage patients in preventive oral care, education and screening for early identification of disease and referral to dental professionals.

Also, as a growing, but limited body of research has now found that periodontal disease is associated with a range of health conditions in older adults including diabetes, heart disease, respiratory infections and dementia; we have more recently begun to explore the untapped potential of the dental office for contributions to screening and management of chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

This session will feature a panel to help us better understand how they, and you, can help patients and other providers address these gaps. We’ll explore how members of the primary care team can work together and become leaders in efforts to bridge silos across education and practice, to build a shared understanding of the bi-directional relationship between oral health and other systemic disease. We will learn how they have integrated oral health into their role and teams and how, through their work and potentially yours, medical-dental integration can benefit individuals, families and communities, reduce pain and suffering and save money.

 Learning Objectives:

1.   Describe why primary care health professionals and community workers are motivated to seek a better understanding of oral health.

2.   Identify freely available tools, resources that can be used to weave oral health across any curriculum or IPE team trainings.

3.   Describe strategies being used by educators and health professionals to advance oral health equity and integrated team-based care.