The dental home: a primary care oral health concept.
BACKGROUND
The pediatrics community has promoted the concept of a medical home to improve families' care utilization. The authors describe the medical home and propose a dental home concept to improve families' access to dental care.


METHODS
The dental home is a locus for preventive oral health supervision and emergency care. It can be a repository for records and the focus for making specialty referrals. When culture and ethnicity are barriers to care, the dental home offers a site adapted to care delivery and is sensitive to family values.


CONCLUSIONS
The dental home can provide access to preventive and emergency services for children. Establishment of the home early in the child's life can expose a child to prevention and early intervention before problems occur, reduce anxiety and facilitate referral.
Nowak
Arthur J
AJ
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.
Casamassimo
Paul S
PS
D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D003363:Cost Control; D003469:Culture; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000517:prevention & control; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control; D003792:Dental Records; D005006:Ethnicity; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009909:Oral Health; D011314:Preventive Health Services; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012017:Referral and Consultation