41 - Vision 2024: A Novel Academic Public Health Partner to Advance Oral Health
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
2:00 PM – 3:15 PM CST
Location: Grand Ballroom
Disclosure(s):
Sujay Mehta, DMD, MPH: No financial relationships to disclose
Description: Schools of public health are a valuable stakeholder to provide resources and training to integrate essential oral health care with a wide range of health workers, researchers and advocates. The Vision 2030 Report encourages integration of essential oral health services into principles of universal health care for all. Dental leadership has not addressed access to care for people unable to afford private dentistry. Dental education produces a majority of dentists working in private practice. Oral health concerns such as oral manifestations of systemic disease, traumatic injuries, congenital disorders, oral mucosal disease and pains across the lifespan are largely ignored for those unable to afford or access the current system of care. Advancing oral health requires collaboration with stakeholders including patient advocacy groups, policy makers, healthcare workers, health economists and institutions including schools of public health. A novel oral health collaborating center at a public health institution without an affiliated dental school has the potential to advance difficult conversations on integrating oral health while also encouraging needed collaborations with public health researchers, patient advocates, policymakers as well as clinicians to incorporate a multi-disciplinary approach to advance health for all. Public health institutions, including those without affiliated dental schools, have a wide range of perspectives, experiences and resources that are necessary to achieve proposed health goals in six years. This roundtable defines the wide scope of oral diseases, review historic challenges, and propose a unique academic collaborating center to incorporate the wide scope of oral diseases into universal health care.