Interprofessional Oral Health

Oral health is more than just treatment, all health professionals and workers have an important role to play in disease prevention maintenance of good oral health. Presenters in the Interprofessional Oral Health Track represent a range of health professions that are working to promote and improve oral health to support overall health of individuals and populations. The Interprofessional Oral Health Track sessions at the Nexus Summit 2020 explore a number of issues and approaches linking oral health, to health professional education and IPE, health disparities and social determinants of health, and the importance of oral health literacy and prevention education.

Learning Objectives

By participating in the Interprofessional Oral Health Track, you will be able to:

1. Describe the relationship of oral health to overall health and well-being
2. Identify the role and contributions that nondental providers and health workers can play in promoting oral health and preventing dental disease
3. Use oral health as an exemplar for interprofessional practice and education
4. Discuss strategies for weaving oral health across professional curricula and IPE

Reflective Questions for the Interprofessional Oral Health Track

1. All professions have a role to play in oral health. If oral health is a team sport, how do we use IPE to recruit nontraditional professions to the playing field?
2. Oral health and IPE are often an add-on in health profession education, how do we weave these across the curriculum to integrate oral health into overall health?
3. Oral health is more than just treatment; how can oral health elevate prevention across Interprofessional education and practice?
4. Communities have a big role to play in health. How do we help empower our communities to protect the oral health of their population? Who can we partner with?
5. The relationship between social determinants of health and oral health is bi-directional. The social determinants of health impact individuals’ ability to achieve optimal oral health, oral health also has important implications for individuals’ economic and social functioning. What do we do?
6. Oral health is the perfect exemplar for interprofessional education as all professionals can play a role in delivering oral health. How does oral health help us better understand and address health disparities?

Preparing for the Interprofessional Oral Health Track

Learn more about the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health Smiles for Life and the Oral Health Delivery Framework and Implementation Guide:

Integration of Oral Health and Primary Care Practice
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration
February 2014 https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/oralhealth/integrationoforalhealth.pdf

SMILES For LIFE
www.Smilesforlifeoralhealth.org

White Paper: Oral Health: An Essential Component of Primary Care

http://www.niioh.org/sites/default/files/Oral_Health_white_paper_executive_summary_final.pdf