Making the Connection Between Dental and Medical Care
NACDD’s oral health program promotes integrating medical and dental care to achieve whole-person health. Recognizing the vital link between oral health and overall health, we collaborate with diverse partners to ensure that oral health is integral to overall healthcare.
“Partner Actions to Improve Oral Health Outcomes,” funded by the CDC’s Division of Oral Health (DOH) in 2018, works with five states (Colorado, Connecticut, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Virginia) to enhance coordination between medical and dental care for people with chronic diseases.
In the videos below, each state shares their unique story about how they approached strengthening the link between oral health and chronic disease with their partners.
“The Connection Between Poor Oral Health and Chronic Disease” resource outlines the scientific evidence for how how oral health and chronic diseases are linked. It showcases the approaches that each state took to collaborate with partners and features many of the resources that they developed to support their efforts. The appendix contains links to resources that states interested in conducting this work may find informative and useful.
Resources
Systemic barriers to oral medical care coordination for whole person care (oral medical care coordination) include challenges such as lack of awareness, limited professional education, lack of technology integration, limited financial reimbursement, and outdated policies.
This paper describes opportunities for improving oral health and chronic disease program collaboration and medical-dental integration.
On February 7, 2019 the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors’ ProVention Health Foundation convened a Thought Leader Roundtable (TLRT) on Oral Health and Chronic Disease in Older Adults.
In September 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Oral Health (DOH) funded NACDD to work with five State Health Departments (CO, CT, ND, SC, and VA) funded under DP18-1810 Component 2.