Offering oral health services in your office.

Evidence that poor oral health is connected to poor systemic health has grown over the last decade. Children with dental caries often face pain and nutritional problems, and caries build the foundation for adult dental disease. In adults, periodontitis, or deep inflammation of the gingiva, is strongly linked to poor diabetes control and is associated with vascular disease, arthritis, obesity, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. These connections underscore the value of addressing this major area of patient care in primary care practices. Offering these services might be not only effective preventive care but also remunerative depending on the makeup of a physician’s pediatric population. Although payer policies limit physicians’ ability to be reimbursed for oral health services, four-fifths of state Medicaid programs reimburse for child oral health care. The Institute of Medicine has defined roles for family physicians and other non-dental health care professionals in two reports on advancing oral health care. Also, Healthy People 2020 made oral health one of its top nine health indicators. While bold in mission, none of these documents provide detailed guidelines for medical clinicians, so this article will try to help prepare physicians to incorporate oral health services in their practices.