title: Dentists as oral physicians: the overlooked primary health care resource.
abstract: The United States is currently experiencing a primary care shortage. One solution to improving health care is to increase the utilization of existing health care providers, particularly dentists, an opportunity that has been largely ignored. By employing mid-level providers for less complex procedures to deliver more accessible dental care at lower cost, dentists can redistribute tasks to their office workforce. They can then serve as oral physicians who can provide limited preventive primary care, including screening for chronic diseases, while continuing to oversee all dental care, whether provided by dentists or non-dentists. Thus, they could improve the health of the US population as well as increase access to dental care at lower cost, while partially alleviating the primary care shortage by filling a need for the screening aspects of primary care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, USA. donald_giddon@hms.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Donald B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Giddon
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Swann
authors.forename: R Bruce
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Donoff
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hertzman-Miller
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D003815:Dentists; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011315:Preventive Medicine / Q000379:methods; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D024382:Professional Role; D012307:Risk Factors; D000078329:Workforce