Dental Benefits Improve Access to Oral Care
Dental coverage provides a means to obtain oral care, which is an important component of overall health. This article discusses the common forms of dental health plans, the services usually…
Social Work in Dentistry: The CARES Model for Improving Patient Retention and Access to Care
Social work programs in dental schools and dental clinics have been operated successfully since the 1940s, and have been documented as contributing to patients’ access to care and to dental…
Using Teledentistry to Improve Access to Dental Care for the Underserved
Teledentistry is an exciting new area of dentistry that fuses electronic health records, telecommunications technology, digital imaging, and the Internet to link health providers in rural or remote communities. For…
Innovations to Improve Oral Health Care Access
Improving access to oral health care requires an understanding of the social, cultural, political, financial, and manpower factors that influence access. Armed with this knowledge, individuals and organizations desiring to…
Managing Clinical Risk: Right Person, Right Care, Right Time
Dentists and the dental health care industry have a renewed interest in clinical risk assessment, because they offer the potential to identify a patient’s clinical needs for oral health care…
An Introduction to Oral Health Care Reform
Oral health care reform is made up of several components, but access to care is central. Health care reform will occur in some fashion at some point, and how it…
Private Sector Response to Improving Oral Health Care Access
Despite vast improvements in the oral health status of the United States population over the past 50 years, disparities in oral health status continue, with certain segments of the population…
Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Children by Expanding the Dental Workforce to Include Dental Therapists
This article documents the disparities in oral health among children, identifies barriers to access to care for children, describes the use of dental therapists internationally to improve access to care…
The Role of Non-Dental Health Professionals in Providing Access to Dental Care for Low-Income and Minority Patients
The disadvantaged suffer disproportionately from dental problems. These persons are more likely to have untreated oral health problems and associated pain, and also are more likely to forego dental treatment…
Dental Workforce
The dental workforce refers to the number, distribution, and characteristics of dentists, dental auxiliaries, and other support staff involved in the provision of oral health care. This article reviews the…
How Dental Care Can Preserve and Improve Oral Health
Oral health is associated with overall health, and lack of access to dental care has consequences that go far beyond aesthetics. Most oral diseases are preventable and are relatively easy…
The Dilemma of Access to Care: Symptom of a Systemic Condition
The standard ethical arguments that prescribe dentistry’s involvement in improving access to oral health care are based on the ethical principle of social justice. The authors underwrite this principle but…
Preventive Strategies for Traumatic Dental Injuries
Traumatic dental and maxillofacial injuries are common occurrences, and affect worldwide approximately 20% to 30% of permanent dentition, often with serious aesthetic, functional, psychological, and economic consequences. With such a…
Revisiting Traumatic Pulpal Exposure: Materials, Management Principles, and Techniques
This article presents current concepts of managing teeth with traumatic pulp exposures. The article includes a description of the traumatology of crown fractures, discussion of treatment considerations, a summary of…
Trauma Kits for the Dental Office
The old Boy Scout’s motto, “Be Prepared,” can be beneficially applied to the management of dental trauma. A large number of dental injuries occur every year, primarily in the 7-…
Management of Trauma to Supporting Dental Structures
Teeth, periodontium, and supporting alveolar bone are frequently involved in trauma and account for approximately 15% of all emergency room visits. The cause of the dentoalveolar trauma varies in different…
Cone Beam CT for Diagnosis and Treatment Planning in Trauma Cases
Three-dimensional imaging offers many advantages in making diagnoses and planning treatment. This article focuses on cone beam CT (CBCT) for making diagnoses and planning treatment in trauma-related cases. CBCT equipment…
Management of Facial Bite Wounds
Bite wounds are especially prone to infectious complications, both local and systemic. In bite wounds to the face, such complications can create more difficulties than the initial tissue damage itself…
Use of Prophylactic Antibiotics in Preventing Infection of Traumatic Injuries
In managing traumatic wounds, the primary goal is to achieve rapid healing with optimal functional and esthetic results. This is best accomplished by providing an environment that prevents infection of…
Minor Traumatic Injuries to the Permanent Dentition
Treatment of traumatized teeth generally occurs in two phases: short-term emergency treatment and stabilization followed by endodontic management and review. These authors recently reviewed the endodontic considerations in the treatment…
